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CHAPTERS 



Social Science 



AS CONNECTED WITH 



THE ADMINISTRATION 



STATE CHARITIES. 



T 



George L. Harrison. 




'JELI-V-A.TJEXj-X- pbiitted. 



PHILADELPHIA 
1877. 



It 



V 

4 



Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 

GEORGE L. HARRISON, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



Printed by 
ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT, 

No. 233 South Fifth Street, 
Philadelphia. 



do 
o 



PREFACE. 



The following pages are selected frorri papers originally con- 
tributed to the annual reports of the Board of Public Charities 
of the State of Pennsylvania by the president of the Board. 
They appeared in those reports as published by order of the 
legislature in the years 1870 to 1874, inclusive. The. writer has 
deemed it advisable to collect them into one volume for his 
own gratification and that of his friends, venturing to think that 
thus they may not be without some further utility. 

It might have seemed desirable to recast and rewrite the whole, 
digesting what pertains to each of the subjects discussed into one 
consistent and continuous treatise adjusted to the present time. 
But this would have cost much labor, and would have been, in fact, 
the production of an entirely new work, and, especially, would 
have defeated a leading design of the writer in having this volume 
printed, — which was, to keep the whole in its original association 
with the past. It has been thought best, therefore, to leave the 
several chapters in their historical character, each with its proper 
date, appending such notes and explanations as may seem required 
by the state of the several questions at the present time. 

The original form, therefore, remains, as addressed to the legis- 
lature under the circumstances then existing. There have been 
some slight omissions, but no additions in the text, and no modifi- 
cations either in the sentiments or the expression, of sufficient 
importance to be mentioned. 

The whole is dedicated to my family and friends and those who 
come after me, as a memorial of labors which have been for many 
years among the most cherished and most absorbing objects of 
my life. 

The volume does not seek the public eye, but, while it does not 

challenge, it does not shun either perusal or criticism. 

May, 1877. G. L. H. 

(iii) 



CONTENTS. 



Education. 

PAGE 

i. Compulsory Education (1871), 1 

2. Schools of Reform (1873), • - 37 

3. Reformation of Neglected, Destitute, and Vicious 

Children (1874), 76 

Prison Economy. 

1. Prison Discipline (1871), 89 

2. Benevolence in Punishment and in Provision for the 

Poor (1871), 100 

3. Crime and Prison Economy (1872), 105 

4. Prison Reform (1874), 224 

Care of the Insane. 

1. Insane Hospitals (1872), 243 

2. Plea for the Insane (1873), 2 ^ x 

3. Addendum to Plea (1873), 3& 1 

4. Provision for the Insane Poor (1874), 396 

5. Concluding chapter (1870-1877), 433 



(v) 



EDUCATION 



. COMPULSORY EDUCATION. 

In the report of this board for 1870, the last topic 
presented was that of neglected children. The legis- 
lature was then appealed to, by the highest considera- 
tions of the interests and duty of the State, to make 
provision for their care and education. " The average 
of social virtue, dignity, and wealth," it was then said, 
" is much reduced by the presence of this debased and 
debasing ingredient. And it is a problem well worthy 
of the gravest and most patient thought of philan- 
thropic political economists, whether anything, and (if 
anything) what can be done for the rescue of these un- 
fortunates from their ill-starred condition, for the 
protection of the community which they deteriorate, 
and for the purity, welfare, and honor of the State, the 
mother of them all." 

This evil exists in all parts of the country, but is most 
patent and pressing in large cities and crowded com- 
munities. The remedy — what it shall be, and how it 
shall be applied — is a subject beset with grave diffi- 
culties ; but they are difficulties which must be sooner 
or later manfully met and grappled with. The stability 
and welfare of the State and its free institutions, the 



2 EDUCATION. 

interests and safety of every citizen, and the weal or 
woe of the thousands of innocent and helpless victims, 
are involved in the question and wait upon your 
solution. 

This is an eminently proper subject for this board 
to bring to your attention, both as a " Board of Public 
Charities," and as being required by law to report on 
the causes and remedies of vice and crime. 

No almshouse, no hospital, no asylum or refuge for 
the poor, the diseased, the insane, the imbecile, the in- 
ebriate, or the juvenile offender, is more a work of 
charity, than would be a provision for the care and 
education of these neglected children. No courts of 
justice, no prisons or penitentiaries, or houses of cor- 
rection, or reformatory schools, can tend more directly 
or powerfully to the diminution of vice and crime, than 
schools and homes for these poor unfortunates, ever 
growing up in ignorance and pernicious habits, pre- 
paring to leaven our whole social condition, and to 
assist in making our laws. 

According to the census of i860 (the data of that 
for 1870 are not accessible), the number of adults who 
could not read was : — 

In the United States, of the whole adult population, 20 per cent. 
" " of the white adult population, 9 " 
" " of the native white adult popu- 
lation, ij4 

In New York, of the whole adult population, .... 6 

" of the native white adult population, . . \ x / 2 

In Massachusetts, of the whole adult population, ... 7 

" of the native white adult population, ^ 

In Maine, of the whole adult population, 3 

" of the native white adult population, ... ^ 



EDUCATION. 3 

In Pennsylvania, of the whole adult population, . . 6 per cent. 
" of the native white adult population, 3^ " 

It is to be observed that only the number of the 
adult population is here referred to in each case. 

Of the native white population (adult) the number 
of illiterate adults, less their proportion of adults who 
were idiotic, insane, deaf-mutes, and blind, was : — 

In Massachusetts, — 230 

In Maine, !j5o7 

In Pennsylvania, 34,470 

Thus the number in Pennsylvania was five to one 
of that in Maine, in proportion to the native white 
population of the respective States ; while in Massa- 
chusetts, the result shows, if the returns are correct, 
that more than two hundred and thirty of the idiotic, 
insane, deaf-mute, and blind adults must have been 
taught to read, which is undoubtedly the fact. Since 
i860, great improvements have been made in the con- 
stitution and working of the school system in Pennsyl- 
vania, and it is to be presumed that the proportion of 
illiteracy among her native white population has greatly 
diminished. Under such circumstances, the much 
greater proportion of illiteracy among the foreign- 
born population, though a great, is but a temporary, 
evil. 

In reckoning the twenty per cent, of illiteracy in 
i860, in the whole adult population of the United 
States, it is to be observed that the slaves were set 
down, according to their legal status, as all untaught 
to read, which was then not far from the fact. 



4 EDUCATION. 

NON-ATTENDANCE OF CHILDREN AT SCHOOL. 

The number of children of the school age (from 
five to fifteen), not attending the public schools at all, 
was : — 



In Massachusetts, in 1869 and 1870, . . . . 

" average absence of pupils, 

In Pennsylvania, in 1869 and 1870, .... 

" average absence of pupils, . 

In Philadelphia, in 1869 and 1870, .... 

" average absence of pupils, 

In New York (school age five to twenty-one), in 1 



9 per cent. 

6 

33 
12 

46 
24 



The number of pupils in academies and private 
schools, in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, may about 
balance the number in the public schools, of pupils 
under five and over fifteen years of age. 

If, then, we make due allowance for the number of 
imbecile, insane, deaf-mute, and blind, for those taught 
to read at home, for those detained from school by 
chronic sickness, for those (particularly between the 
ages of five and eight) not yet sent to school, but who 
will attend hereafter, and for those (particularly between 
the ages of twelve and fifteen) not attending school in 
the given year, but who had already learned to read in 
former years, the percentage of absolute non-attend- 
ance in these two States will be reduced to a very low 
figure, probably to not more than one or two per cent., 
which is quite enough. And the apparent advantage 
of Pennsylvania over Massachusetts, in the percentage, 
may, it is not unlikely, arise from some difference in 
the manner of makino- the returns. 



EDUCATION. 5 

In Pennsylvania, the whole number of pupils regis- 
tered in the public schools, during the whole year, are 
reported. In Massachusetts, the highest number at- 
tending for any time, that is, in the winter schools, is 
given. In other words, in Massachusetts the highest 
number attending the summer schools is returned, and 
the highest number attending the winter schools ; but 
though many pupils attend in summer and not in 
winter, and conversely, no attempt is made to give the 
full number of different names registered at both sea- 
sons of the year. However this point of comparison 
may be settled, any doubtful advantage in this respect 
is more than balanced by our manifest disadvantage 
in the average absenteeism of those actually regis- 
tered as pupils. 

If due allowance is made for the longer period of 
school age in New York, it will probably be found that, 
at least outside of the city of New York, the school 
system of that State is quite as effective in reaching 
the whole population as that of either Massachusetts 
or Pennsylvania. 

It is in the large cities, as is shown by the statistics 
of Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Reading, and other large 
cities, that the greatest proportion of neglected and 
uninstructed children is found ; and in such communi- 
ties the proportion is appalling. It cannot be less in 
Philadelphia, after all such allowances as those before 
referred to are made, than about six per cent, of the 
whole number of children of the school aee — that is 
to say, about ten or eleven thousand. And the huge 
and unparalleled proportion of absence to attendance 
of the pupils themselves, viz., forty-six to fifty-four, is 
scarcely less appalling. 



6 EDUCATION. 

IGNORANCE AND CRIME. 

Ignorance not only entails vice and wretchedness 
upon the individual, and loss and expense upon the 
State, but it is a fruitful source of crime. This might 
be presumed from the nature of the case, without 
facts ; but facts establish it. 

The percentage of convicts in State prisons, who 
were unable to read on admission, as reported in 
1868, was : — 

In the whole United States, 28 per cent. 

In New York, 15 " 

In Pennsylvania, 16 " 

In Maine, 10 " 

How far the result in the nation, as a whole, may 
have been influenced by the presence of the freed- 
men, it is not possible for us, at present, to determine; 
but it appears that, even assuming all the freedmen to 
be illiterate, the number of uninstructed convicts was 
nearly three to two of what it should have been in 
proportion to the whole number of the illiterate popu- 
lation of the United States. 

To the percentage of illiterate of the whole adult 
population, and of the adult native white population, 
respectively, the percentage of illiterate convicts was: — 

In New York, as 2^ and 10 to 1. 

In Pennsylvania, as 2^ and 5 to 1. 

In Maine, as 3^3 and 13 to 1. 

And, after making the proper comparisons, it will 
appear that, if all the people in these States had 



EDUCATION. 7 

learned to read, the number of State prison convicts 
would probably have been diminished just about ten 
per cent. 

DUTY OF THE STATE. 

To furnish the needful education, therefore, to her 
neglected children, is what the State owes to them — 
is what the State owes to herself. Charity requires 
it ; prudence and statesmanship command it. And, 
accordingly, we shall not hesitate to proceed to con- 
sider the subject in both these relations. 

But when we propose to bring our schools to bear 
especially on this unfortunate class, we are met, in 
limine, with the objection that our present school sys- 
tem already provides for the whole case ; that it offers 
the means of an elementary education to all who 
choose to avail themselves of its benefits. This may, 
in a certain sense, be true ; but there are children, too 
young to be qualified or permitted to choose for them- 
selves, and yet the choice made for them determines, 
it may be, the happiness or misery of their whole 
lives ; determines whether they are to be useful or 
pernicious members of society ; and shall that choice 
be permitted which imperils not only their happiness, 
but the welfare and existence of the State ? 

It is precisely those children, whose parents or 
guardians are unable or indisposed to provide them 
with an education ; it is precisely those, for whom the 
State is most interested to provide and secure it ; for 
other children would, probably, be educated, if the 
State did not intervene. And as for the children, so 
far as they choose for themselves, those who neglect 



8 EDUCATION. 

the education offered them in the free schools, prefer- 
ring the pleasures and license of vagabondage and 
truancy, are precisely those for whom such education 
is most needed ; for a desire for education is next to 
education itself in its good effects, and those who 
determine to have it would probably obtain it, whether 
the State offered it to them or not. 

Clearly it is the duty — that is, it is the highest interest 
of the State, to secure the education of these " neg- 
lected children," if possible; and the only questions 
are: Is it possible ? and, if so, How can it be done ? 

To attain the end will, of course, involve something- 
like what is called " Compulsory Education;" and, 
against such a scheme, there is started at once a great 
variety of objections and difficulties. Are these insup- 
erable ? Without argument, it might be assumed that 
they are not; for, "where there is a will there is a way." 
Moreover, it is demonstrated by fact, that they are not 
insuperable ; for the thing has been done ; and where 
it has been done, it has never yet been undone or 
repented of. It is a notable fact, that no country or 
community that has adopted either the system of pub- 
lic schools for all, or that has gone so far as to add to 
it that of compulsory education, has ever retraced its 
steps. 

THE SYSTEM OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION HAS BEEN LONG 
AND SUCCESSFULLY TRIED. 

This system has been long established in Norway. 
During the four hundred years of the subjection of 
this country to Denmark, it may be said that education 



EDUCATION. 9 

was much neglected, and ignorance threatened to be- 
come universal. The law rendering education com- 
pulsory was passed in 1827, the agitation of which was 
begun in 1814, soon after the independence of the 
country was secured ; and the enactments have been, 
since that time, rendered more complete, particularly 
by the law of i860. The consequence is, that almost 
every Norwegian can read and write. The school age 
of compulsory attendance is, for children in the country, 
from eight to fifteen years, and in the towns, from 
seven to fifteen. Regular attendance upon the com- 
mon schools is enforced by fines imposed upon the 
parents. If they persist in neglecting the training of 
their children, the law steps in, removes the children 
from their guardianship, and places them in families, 
where they will be conscientiously taught, the expenses 
being - collected from those who should have cared for 
them. In Norway, compulsory education was the 
immediate result of political freedom. 

In Sweden it was an agitation of ten years in the 
House of Peasants that finally constrained the gov- 
ernment to take up the subject. Then there arose a 
remarkable and unanimous opposition from the bish- 
ops. Some held the matter to be absolutely local, 
and one with which the State should not meddle; 
others declared that, if schools were established, the 
people were too poor to send their children properly 
clad; others maintained that the education of the peas- 
antry should be of a limited character. The bishop of 
Lund, that seat of the ancient university, maintained 
that popular education could not and should not be 
introduced. The reply of the celebrated poet Tegner, 



IO EDUCATION. 

then bishop of* the diocese of Wexjo, was similar in 
spirit. To the question, what should the folk-schools 
teach? he answered, "The culture of the laboring 
classes ought, principally, to be religious ; this, if rightly 
imparted, includes morality; all other is to be regarded 
as not only needless but more hurtful than beneficial." 
Tegner was at that time fifty-seven years of age, and 
had been a bishop about twelve years. Notwithstand- 
ing the opposition of the established church, in three 
years from the time these answers were given, the 
present system of folk-schools had its foundation in 
an act of the Diet. By the law of 1 842, one such school 
was required to be maintained in each socken, both in 
the city and in the country. [See the report of the 
United States Minister at Stockholm.] The result has 
been that in 1868 ninety-seven per cent, of all the 
children in Sweden were actually attending the folk 
or higher schools, or were receiving certified instruc- 
tion elsewhere. Compulsory education in Sweden 
may be carried by law to the separation of children 
from parents; but this has been resorted to in but few 
instances, and only where the poverty of the parent 
rendered it necessary for the parish to support the 
child. 

There is in Sweden a growing sentiment in favor of 
enforcing universal attendance, avoiding, if possible, 
the separation of parent and child. Instruction in the 
folk-schools is practically gratuitous. 

In Prussia, also, as is well known, the system of 
compulsory education has been established long enough 
to have had its effect upon the training of a whole 
generation ; and it is perhaps the best educated gene- 



EDUCATION. II 

ration that has ever lived, or that is anywhere to be 
found. No other people have been so universally 
trained in the elements of learning and useful knowl- 
edge. This is the people that has revolutionized 
Europe on the fields of Sadowa and Sedan ; and the 
success of Prussia in her great contests with Austria 
and with France, has resulted far more from this edu- 
cated intelligence of her people than from any warlike 
arm, or any strategy or military science of her generals. 

Austria has been wise enough to take a lesson from 
her defeat, and imitating the policy of the victor, she 
has entered upon a course of political and popular 
improvement, upon a system of liberality and progress, 
which, if persevered in, will render her a greater nation 
than she has ever been. One of the greatest benefits 
yet conferred upon the working classes of Austria, is 
the general school bill of 14th May, 1869, which makes 
national education compulsory, and greatly elevates 
the standard of it. In accordance with the law, com- 
pulsory attendance at school begins with every child at 
the age of six, and is continued uninterruptedly until 
the age of fourteen. But even then, the child is only 
allowed to leave school on production of certified proof 
that he has thoroughly acquired the full amount of in- 
formation which this great ] aw fixes as the absolute 
minimum of education for every Austrian citizen. 
Nor are any private schools tolerated by the govern- 
ment which do not efficiently provide the prescribed 
amount of secular instruction ; although so long as 
this condition is fulfilled, the law imposes no limit to 
private educational establishments. 

The misfortunes and miseries of France have taught 



12 EDUCATION. 

her the same lesson ; and it is now stated, on good 
authority, that the French republican government has 
it in contemplation to establish for that country a 
thorough system of universal compulsory education. 
Had she established such a system thirty years ago 
the name of Sedan would have remained in compara- 
tive obscurity ; the myriads of her soldiers would have 
acquired their knowledge of German geography in a 
more satisfactory way than that in which it was actually 
forced upon them, and the Paris commune would 
either have never existed, or would not have found the 
ignorant mob of idlers and vagabonds that were ready 
to execute its savage decrees of vandalism and murder. 

England, too, has been roused at length from her 
lethargy. Her elementary education act was passed 
August 9th, 1870. This act of a liberal progressive 
administration, has made a step towards the thorough 
instruction and education of the masses of the English 
people, which an established church and an aristocratic 
State, with all the wealth of the richest country in the 
world at their command for centuries, had neglected 
or failed to accomplish or even to undertake. This 
education act includes the compulsory feature, and its 
detailed provisions, the result of a most exhaustive 
investigation and discussion, may be referred to as 
embodying an eminently practical effort towards solv- 
ing and removing the difficulties which embarrass the 
subject. 

Thus, in Europe, the system of compulsory education 
has been established in countries chiefly agricultural, 
and in others largely commercial and manufacturing ; 
in countries with a scattered rural population, and in 



EDUCATION. 13 

others with cities as large as our own ; in countries 
comparatively poor and peaceful and in others of the 
greatest wealth and warlike spirit; in countries where 
the distribution of wealth is most equal, and in others 
where it is most unequal. And, wherever it has been 
tried, it has proved successful and satisfactory; no ret- 
rograde step has been taken or even thought of. 

Nor is it in Europe only that the system has been 
introduced. Massachusetts has, for several years, been 
trying it with some limitations, but with a constant and 
increasing tendency towards a more stringent and ab- 
solute enforcement of the rule, and with eminently 
satisfactory results. Not only Massachusetts, one of 
our oldest States, and, side by side with our own 
Pennsylvania, the very cradle of American freedom, 
and where the ancient fires of liberty still burn as 
brightly as anywhere else in our independent country; 
not only old Massachusetts in the east, but Nebraska 
in the west, — one of the most youthful States in the 
Union, where the life-blood of liberty and progress is 
throbbing with fresh and buoyant energy, — Nebraska 
has, by the framers of her constitution, sought to engraft 
this feature upon her school system in her fundamental 
law ; a provision, however, which has been rendered 
prospective, in consequence of the rejection of the 
constitution because of an objectionable feature in the 
article on taxation. 

The superintendent of public schools in Massachu- 
setts reports, in 1870, that the law for the suppression 
of " truancy," as applied in Boston, is working satisfac- 
torily. The city is divided into ten truant districts, 
one truant officer beine assigned to each district. 



1 4 EDUCATION. 

These officers are expected to give their whole time to 
the investigation of cases of truancy, reported to them 
by the teachers of their respective districts, and in 
securing the attendance of absentees — that is, of chil- 
dren whose names are not enrolled in the schools, 
and who are, therefore, not known, technically, as 
"truants." Massachusetts, also, requires a certificate 
of a certain number of months attendance in school, as 
a condition of the employment of children in any 
manufactory. 

The Massachusetts Board of Education, in their 
report of 1871, say: — 

"By the present law, attendance at school for three 
months in each year is rendered compulsory for every 
child between the ages of eight and fourteen, except in 
certain special cases, while the towns are required to 
maintain their schools at least six months in each year. 

" The board recommend that the statute be changed, 
so as to require attendance for the whole period, at 
least, during which schools are required to be main- 
tained, believing that attendance upon the schools 
should be compulsory for the child for the same term 
in which the maintenance of the school is compulsory 
for the tax-payers. Since the only hope of security 
and prosperity for a republic rests in the virtuous in- 
telligence of its citizens, the rightfulness of compulsory 
education is generally admitted. Salus populi suprema 
lex. The necessity of enforcing this right arises from 
the existence in our community of a large and growing' 
class of persons, not only ignorant themselves, but 
only too willing to keep their children in ignorance for 
the sake of the pittance which may be earned by un- 
skilled juvenile labor." 



EDUCATION. 15 

From New York comes the voice in regard to the 
crying evil of absenteeism : " There is no remedy 
that I know of but compulsory attendance." The 
superintendent of public schools declares that "the 
primary object of the State, in bestowing free education 
upon its citizens, is not to benefit individuals as such, 
but to qualify them properly for their relations and 
duties to each other as members of the same commu- 
nity." The superintendent of the schools in Maine 
has put the argument into this form: "The power 
which compels the citizen to pay his annual tax for the 
support of schools should, in like manner, fill the 
schools with all of those for whose benefit that contri- 
bution was made. It is in the licrht of a solemn com- 
pact between the citizen and the State community. 
The private citizen contributes of his means, under the 
established rule of the State, for the education of the 
youth, with a view to protection of person and security 
to property ; the State, compelling such contributions, 
is under reciprocal obligation to provide and secure the 
complete education for which the contribution has 
been made. This implies the exercise of State power, 
and involves compulsory education as a duty to the 
tax-payer. The State builds prisons and penitentiaries 
for the protection of society, and taxes society for the 
same. But does she stop here, leaving him who has 
violated the law to be pursued by the community in a 
mass — to be apprehended by a crowd and borne by a 
throng to the place of incarceration? No; she pur- 
sues the criminal through legitimate instrumentalities, 
ferrets him out by the sharpest means of detection, and 
eventually secures that safety and protection to society 



1 6 EDUCATION. 

for which society has been taxed. Now, to prevent 
crime — to anticipate and shut it off by proper compul- 
sory efforts in the school-room, working with and 
moulding early childhood and youth ' to the principles 
of morality and justice, and a sacred regard for truth, 
love of country, humanity, and a universal benevo- 
lence, sobriety, industry, and frugality, chastity, moder- 
ation, and temperance, and all other virtues which are 
the ornaments of society' [cited from the Constitution 
of Maine], the State not only has the right to inaugu- 
rate such methods as may be deemed best, but is 
under strict obligation to do so by all the means in her 
power." 

The world is moving ! Shall Pennsylvania remain 
behind ? 

CLASSIFICATION OF THE EVIL. 

The evil to be remedied is multiform. The absen- 
tees from the schools may be distributed into various 
classes. There are absentees from the public schools 
who are provided at least with an elementary education 
at home, or in private or charitable institutions. Of 
these nothing further is required but the ascertainment 
of this fact ; and their case is then to be entirely set 
aside from any idea of compulsion or control. 

For the rest, among the absentees from the schools 
are : — 

i. Children living in the streets, without guardian- 
ship or supervision, and without employment, except 
such as they may choose or chance to pick up for them- 
selves. 



EDUCATION. I J 

2. Children employed in manufacturing drudgery, 
not only in great cotton or woolen manufactories, 
but who are crowded into cellars and garrets and 
cramped and comfortless rooms — working, for ex- 
ample, in manipulating tobacco, and in all sorts of 
simple drudgery. 

3. Children, in the city, kept at home by their pa- 
rents to run errands or help them in their daily toil, 
trade, or business; as about grocers' shops or butchers' 
stalls, or other purely unimproving occupations, equiv- 
alent to idleness at home. 

4. Children in the country, kept, from their earliest 
years, constantly employed in agricultural labors. 



OUTLINES OF THE REMEDY PROPOSED. 

It is necessary for the best interests of the State, 
and of the children themselves, that at least an ele- 
mentary education should be secured to all these 
classes ; but it is not equally necessary for all. For 
the first class it is most necessary, and its importance 
diminishes in the order of the enumeration, until the 
last class, in which it is least important. For, any 
honest employment, consistent with health, is better 
than idle vagabondage ; and the knowledge of some 
trade, or of agriculture (which is the healthiest em- 
ployment of all for a child, both morally and physi- 
cally), is even more important towards making a good 
citizen than a knowledge of reading, writing, or arith- 
metic. 



1 8 EDUCATION. 

The truant and employment laws of Massachusetts, 
with some fuller provisions, might answer, for the rem- 
edy, in case of the first and second classes. Of the 
first class, the attendance at school should be required 
and secured absolutely ; and for those among them en- 
tirely destitute of homes and means of support, proper 
refuges, maintenance and guardianship should be pro- 
vided at the public expense. The safety of the com- 
munity demands it; the economy of the tax-payer 
requires it ; for it is, in the end, the cheapest way by 
which the case can be disposed of, and the only way to 
make the tax already paid effectual to accomplish its 
object. 

And it is to be remembered that, though this form of 
the evil may be largely local, its dangerous conse- 
quences and the interest in having it remedied are not 
local. The character of great cities exerts a powerful, 
and often a sadly controlling, influence on the country ; 
near and remote. They may be fountains of blessing 
to a State, or they may be sources of wide-spread cor- 
ruption, nests of iniquity, festering sores upon the body 
politic. The children that grow up neglected in the 
city do not always remain there. They may carry the 
pestilential influence of their vices all over the State. 
While, if they were rescued from ruin, trained up in 
useful knowledge and moral habits, they would almost 
certainly be found in large proportion distributed over 
the whole area of the State, rendering efficient assist- 
ance in the development of its resources and the 
elevation of its character. Their education, therefore, 
concerns not only the city wherein they are found, but 
the whole Commonwealth. 



EDUCATION. 19 

The safety of the State may not be so much im- 
perilled by the neglect of the second class as of the 
first ; but, in point of fact, an almost equal positive loss 
of wealth, i. e., of productive labor, is incurred. Besides, 
it is permitting outrageous cruelty to the children; and 
if the State, by solemn enactment, may provide for the 
prevention of cruelty to animals, though inflicted by 
the poorest man in the very act of earning his daily 
bread, will she not provide for the prevention of cruelty 
to her own children, however the necessities of the 
parents may seem to justify or excuse it ? In these 
cases, the parents or employes should be absolutely 
required, under appropriate penalties, to send the 
children to school a certain portion of the year, until 
they have acquired at least those rudiments of knowl- 
edge which should be adjudged by statute to constitute 
the minimum of an elementary education. If obedience 
to such a law is refused, and if, from the poverty of the 
parties or from whatever cause, the penalties cannot 
be enforced, then, as in the former case, the State 
should interpose, and take the care and maintenance 
of the children into its own hands. To provide for 
their maintenance, by compelling them to devote to 
manual and exhausting labor that childhood which 
should be devoted to the studies and recreations of 
school, is, in the end, the most expensive way to the 
State in which it could be provided for. 

Of the third and fourth classes, the attendance at 
school might be required by a similar process with 
similar provisions, and for similar, though, at least in 
the fourth class, not equally imperative reasons. Such 
is a general outline of a remedy proposed for the great 
evil in question. But it meets with many 



20 EDUCATION. 

OBJECTIONS. 

i. "It would interfere with personal liberty." So 
does the imposition of military service or training. 
So does the requisition to serve on juries or to aid 
the sheriff in the posse comitatus. So does the law 
abating nuisances, or making it penal to sell certain 
articles without a license. If the safety and welfare of 
the State are sufficient reasons for those interferences 
with personal liberty, why should not the same be 
sufficient reasons in the other and more urgent case ? 
Indeed, we might as well admit it to be a part of the 
personal liberty of the citizen to get drunk or go 
naked in the streets, or set fire to his house, or starve 
his family, as to have children, and, that he may use 
them only for his own accommodation, or in mere 
wantonness to cast them upon the community in 
vicious ignorance and sottish imbecility. If the law 
may restrain a man from cruelly beating his horse or 
his mule, shall it be considered an insufferable inter- 
ference with his personal liberty to forbid his dwarfing 
the minds, debasing the morals, stunting the bodies, 
and enfeebling the constitutions of his children ? Is 
the State more interested in the care of oxen than of 
men? 

2. "It would be an interference with the rights of 
conscience." 

So may be the imposition of military service, or the 
requisition of personal aid to the sheriff; but this case 
need involve no such interference at all, unless men have 
a conscientious repugnance to children being taught 



EDUCATION. 21 

to read and write, and to lead moral and virtuous 
lives, instead of being left to grow up in ignorance and 
vice. And, even as for religious instruction, it would 
be to assume a strange position to say, " the instructor 
may teach the child that ' twice two are four ;' he may 
even say, 'be temperate and chaste,' but I have con- 
scientious scruples against his saying, ' obey the com- 
mandments of Almighty God.' " Still, all formal 
religious instruction or exercises in the schools that 
children are required to attend, including, under that 
category, even the reading of the Holy Scriptures, if 
so it is insisted upon* may be confined to certain 
prescribed periods at the opening or close of the school- 
day ; and all children may be excused from attendance 
at those periods, whose parents or guardians should 
expressly desire it. 

3. " The State is not a benevolent institution, or an 
association for moral reform." 



*And who will insist upon it ? The opposition to the reading of the Holy 
Scriptures in the common schools, coming from professed infidels, Mohammedans, 
Jews, or Chinese, is scarcely of sufficient account, in this Christian country, to over- 
rule the wishes of all other parties. The real brunt of the opposition comes from 
a professed Christian body — the Roman Catholic Church ; and it should be distinctly 
understood, once for all, that if the Bible is banished from our public schools it 
is because that body of Christians demands its banishment. And then let it be 
considered with what force and fairness that church can turn around and raise the 
cry of "godless schools." By whose fault are they godless ? Let the responsibility 
rest where it belongs. Let it be remembered that the same people who cry out 
most lustily against the " godless schools " are the people who have insisted upon 
utterly banishing from the schools the very reading of the Holy Scriptures. As 
for the different versions of the Bible, that, except with bigots, could not be a 
matter of essential moment, and it might easily be arranged that the question, 
whether the Protestant or the Douay version should be read, should be determined 
by the majority in each school division or school board. 



2 2 EDUCATION. 

But the State has its almshouses ; it aids in the sup- 
port of institutions for the deaf and dumb, the blind, 
the feeble-minded ; it aids in establishing and in sus- 
taining houses of refuge and schools of reform for the 
youthful victims of neglect, incorrigibility, or vice. Its 
legislature has its standing committee on vice and im- 
morality, and has constituted this commission as its 
" Board of Public Charities." Surely it will hardly be 
urged as a proper reason against a legal enactment, 
that it will do some good, — that it will tend to accom- 
plish even the highest ends of benevolence and morality. 
But here it is the very safety and welfare of the State 
that is appealed to, as the proper object of the pro- 
posed legislation. To prevent vice and crime by 
removing their causes, and thus to prevent their con- 
sequences of poverty and misery and shame, of injury 
and loss to society, is quite as consistent with the 
proper functions of the State, as to punish them after 
they have borne their fruits. 

4. " It would vastly increase the cost and burden of 
the public schools." 

If it should do so, it would still be only as the nec- 
essary means of securing for all the education which 
it is the constitutional duty of the legislature to provide. 
But it would probably not increase the cost of the 
schools nearly so much as it might be supposed or 
apprehended, while it might be made greatly to increase 
their general efficiency. It is to be assumed that 
school accommodations are already provided sufficient 
for all the children of school age in the Commonwealth. 
But even if it were necessary to reserve or supply 



EDUCATION. 23 

separate schools for those whose children do not now 
attend school at all, and if to these were added the 
incorrigibly truant and the unreasonably absent from 
the other schools, together with those who for misbe- 
havior or negligence are expelled from them, it would 
only leave more room in the other schools for the 
wants of an increasing population, and would, in the 
long run, involve only a change in the distribution of 
the whole number of children. The result would, in 
fact, be that the average attendance in the other 
schools would be much raised ; the conduct and indus- 
try of the pupils would be improved, and in the end 
the number to be provided for in the separate school 
would be very small indeed. And as to the meagre 
remnant of extremely destitute children which would 
be, we believe, continually reduced under the system 
we propose, for whom maintenance as well as instruc- 
tion would have to be provided, it is not easy to see 
how the State can decline the duty of making the pro- 
vision, or why, while it has its numerous asylums of 
kindred character, it should seek to decline it. We 
think, therefore, that the expense would not be 
"vastly" increased; but whatever the cost would be, 
it ought to be cheerfully met. 

S. "It would encourage reckless marriages, and the 
reckless idleness and wastefulness of parents." 

This is the sort of objection that has been made, 
and may continue to be made against all relief afforded 
to the poor and wretched. There is an abuse to be 
guarded against, but it is not to be guarded against 
by leaving the destitute and miserable to rot and 



24 EDUCATION. 

perish ; but only by giving the relief in such judicious 
ways and degrees as to avoid abuses as far as possi- 
ble. The same good judgment should be exercised 
in this case. But the objection is the less applicable 
here, because the natural and proper effect of the 
legislation proposed would be, on the whole, to dimin- 
ish poverty and wretchedness, as well as ignorance, 
vice, and crime. Meantime it does not appear that 
the evil consequence alleged has actually followed 
where education has been made universally compul- 
sory, whether in Sweden, in Norway, or in Germany. 



6. " Merely to learn to read and write will not make 
better citizens or diminish crime." 

Here it is to be observed, first of all, that the prac- 
tical alternative is not, as is often invidiously suggested, 
between a knowledge of reading and writing on the 
one hand, and habits of morality and religion or a 
knowledge of a trade on the other ; but between so 
much knowledge as is involved in reading and writing 
and no education at all ; between so much knowledge 
as that or blank ignorance or a training only in habits 
of vice and crime. 

In the second place, so far from its being true that 
such a modicum of learning, or any amount of knowl- 
edge, is naturally associated with immorality, the plain 
fact is that there is a natural affinity between knowl- 
edge and good morals ; between the normal culture 
of the intellect and of the heart ; between truth and 
rectitude ; and that a knowledge of reading and writ- 
ing increases both the means and the tendency to 
acquire both the knowledge and the habits of virtue 



EDUCATION. 25 

and good morals. This is the general law, and the 
dissociation of knowledge from virtue., the perversion 
of knowledge to the aid and development of vice and 
iniquity, which, it is true, may sometimes happen, and 
which has happened in some notorious and terrible 
examples, is one of the most monstrous abuses known 
in human experience. 

But, in the third place, it is not proposed that these 
children should be taught to read and write to the 
exclusion of all moral or religious instruction. The 
public schools of Pennsylvania are neither immoral 
nor godless schools. Ninety-nine in a hundred of the 
teachers are, and would continue to be, moral, and 
nine-tenths of them religious persons. Moral and 
religious instruction and training would be given, 
radiating constantly in an unconscious influence from 
the person, bearing, and example of the teacher ; 
from the very air and order of the school-room ; and 
in formal lessons, too, and special exercises, with such 
rare exceptions for weak consciences as have been 
before referred to. Moreover, we here add, that all 
the time, if any, besides Sundays and Saturdays, which 
any parents may require for their children to receive 
actual religious instruction from their own religious 
teachers, would be freely accorded to them. The 
church or the churches, and any benevolent, moral, 
and religious associations or persons, are, and will be, 
of course, at perfect liberty to give to these neglected 
children now in question, not only moral and religious 
instruction, but as full an education, in all respects, as 
they please. The State will not interfere with them. 
The State, in her school system, does not interfere 



26 EDUCATION. 

with the church at all. The church is, and always has 
been, and always will be, while the fundamental princi- 
ples of our civil and social polity remain what they 
are, at perfect liberty to educate in religion, morals, 
and every kind of learning, all the children in the 
State, if she will, and if she can induce them to receive 
her instructions. Of course the State will not, and 
cannot consistently, compel the attendance of the chil- 
dren upon such schools. The church is at as full 
liberty to do all she will and can with the State system 
of public schools, even including in that system the 
feature of compulsory attendance (for this feature 
is never to be applied to children who receive 
sufficient instruction elsewhere) ; the church has, 
and will have, with all this, just as full and free 
scope for all her benevolent activities as she ever 
had or could have with no State schools whatever. 
The church has had her opportunity, without these 
latter schools, falsely and slanderously styled " god- 
less," and with immense revenues and means in her 
hands, — means and revenues, in many cases, bestowed 
upon her for this very purpose, — in Spain, in Italy, in 
Portugal, in the states of South America, and even in 
England ; and what has been the result as to the edu- 
cation of the masses of the poorer and of the so-called 
lower classes of the community ? In many cases, as in 
Sweden, she seems to have been positively principled 
against their education. The " church" has reason to 
hide her head in silent shame or humble confession at 
her own neglect, rather than to carp at the state for 
its imperfect efforts to supply her lack of service to 
remedy, as it may, the consequences of her unfaithful- 



EDUCATION. 2 J 

ness. Meanwhile, the state not only leaves the church 
at liberty to act for herself and in her own way, but 
invites her, and invites all good men, to render their 
aid in this work so fraught with beneficence towards 
its particular objects, as well as interwoven with the 
necessary conditions of the public welfare. And it is 
no small encouragement to the efforts of the state in 
this direction, to believe and expect, as we have good 
reason to do, that those efforts will be seconded, and 
their expense greatly curtailed, not only by the spon- 
taneous favor of public opinion, but by the systematic 
aid of Christian benevolence, in furnishing homes and 
refuges, as well as a good training, to many of these 
children of neglect and want.* 

* After so many repeated and complete explanations and refutations as have been 
made, the persistent efforts to hold up the system of secular education in common 
schools to obloquy, as being hostile, in any sense or degree, to the religious edu- 
cation of the young, is one of the most astonishing and inexplicable instances of 
an inveterate and perverse misunderstanding, or of obstinate and unreasoning 
misrepresentation, to be found in the history of human thought and human con- 
troversy. There is absolutely not the slightest antithesis or interference between 
the two. The church is left just as free as she ever was or could be to give all 
the religious education she can or will to any and all children, and all other 
education, too, if she chooses. The common-school system leaves her entirely 
untrammeled to discharge her whole duty in the training of the young; for as to 
the assertion, sometimes made, that a merely secular education is in itself worse 
than absolute ignorance, it scarely deserves the honor of a refutation. And yet, 
from the persistent tone and reiterated assertions of certain ecclesiastical opponents 
of the common schools, one would suppose the church was, by this system, abso- 
lutely stripped of her rights of training her children in religious culture at all, and 
that all the children taught in the common schools were actually deprived of a 
religious education, which they would otherwise receive, and positively con- 
demned to sheer godlessness, irreligion, and immorality. On the contrary, the 
point is just this : the state, from the nature of the case, cannot and will not give 
a religious education to her children, — though she will have the Bible read in her 
schools until the church forbids it ; — but she will give a secular education to all 
her children, unless the church herself or some other party chooses to give such 
an education to any or all, with or without a religious training. In carrying out 



28 EDUCATION. 

In the fourth place, if by "good citizens" is meant 
useful, productive members of society, it is not pre- 
tended that all which is of importance to make men 
such, is, to teach them to read and write ; and if the 
state is disposed and can afford to secure to these 
children the knowledge of some trade or handicraft 
also, so much the better. Meantime, the mere knowing 
how to read and write tends, and powerfully tends, in 
the right direction; tends towards making men useful 
and productive citizens; tends, therefore, to increase 
the wealth and prosperity of the State, and thus to 
repay, and more than repay, all that it may have cost. 
Abundant evidence on this head has been collected by 
the United States Commissioner of Education, and 
published in his report for 1870, pages 439-467. The 
following questions were submitted to a great number 
and variety of competent witnesses : — 

1. Have you observed a difference in skill, aptitude, 
and amount of work executed by persons you have 

this plan, the state is not, here with us, hampered or hindered by those compli- 
cations which exist in most European countries, where they have an established 
or state religion, side by side with dissenting religious bodies; and where an out- 
cry is naturally created, whether in the state schools the religious instruction of 
the established church is given or not given. Especially is this outcry occasioned, 
and justly, if the funds of the established church are diverted by the state to the 
maintenance of a system of merely secular instruction. There is also equal reason 
for complaint, when the law of compulsory education absolutely requires that all 
children shall receive their education in the state schools, whether religious instruc- 
tion is given in them or not ; so that, even if the church or private schools furnish 
an equally good secular education, no such substitution is accepted for that given 
in the state schools. This may well be considered as interfering with the right 
of conscience and with personal and religious liberty. But nobody proposes that 
compulsory education, with us, should assume this form. Only a certain training 
in the public schools is to be required of all children of a certain age, or its 
equivalent elsewhere. 



EDUCATION. 20 

employed, arising from a difference in their education, 
and independent of natural abilities ? 

2. Do those who can merely read and write, and who 
merely possess those rudiments of an education, other 
things being equal, show any greater skill and fidelity 
as laborers, skilled or unskilled, or as artisans, than do 
those who are not able to read and write ? and, if so, 
how much would such additional skill, &c. tend to 
increase the productiveness of their services, and, con- 
sequently, their wages ? 

The answers to these questions all tend to establish 
the point that the mere ability to read and write, 
by even an unskilled laborer, acids, on an average, 
from twenty-five to fifty per cent, to his value and 
efficiency. 

Similar questions were propounded to large num- 
bers of intelligent workmen, and of observers, who 
were neither employers nor workmen, and all with the 
same result. 

It cannot be doubted, therefore, that the wealth of 
the State would be greatly promoted by giving at least 
a rudimentary education to those thousands of her 
children who are now suffered to grow up in ignorance 
and neglect. 

In the fifth place, that the merely knowing how to 
read and write is to some extent a preservative from 
crime, is evident from the State prison statistics already 
given, from which it appears that if all in the State were 
taught to read and write, the number of criminals would 
be diminished nearly ten per cent. The consequence 
would be a great pecuniary saving; though one can 



30 EDUCATION. 

hardly bring himself to mention this by the side of the 
immense moral gain. 

7. "The evil complained of is very slight in the rural 
portions of the State." 

If so, then all the other objections, for this case, pro- 
portionally lose their weight; then, its remedy could 
interfere but little with personal liberty or the rights 
of conscience; it could subject the State in but a slight 
degree to the charge of philanthropy; it could cost 
but little, and could not much encourage reckless 
marriages or extravagant living, nor could it much 
increase the exposure of the State schools to the 
charge of immorality and ungodliness, or inutility 
and impotence. 

The remedy is, doubtless, more needed in cities and 
crowded communities than it is in sparsely settled and 
agricultural portions of the country ; but we think that 
we have shown that its beneficial influences would not 
be confined to these districts of dense population, but 
that they would be widespread and general, and that 
we have also demonstrated that in the less thickly set- 
tled districts it is not impracticable, nor likely to work 
any evil, but rather that it will be productive of good 
and only good, as is proved by the experience of Prus- 
sia and Sweden and Norway, in which latter country 
it has been in full operation for more than forty years. 

From a review, therefore, of the whole case, the 
board cannot but earnestly recommend as a remedy 
for this — one of the greatest, most painful, and most 
threatening evils that exist among us — the enactment 
of a general law of compulsory education, or as near an 



EDUCATION. 31 

approximation to it as the legislature, in its wisdom, 
shall deem expedient and practicable*; any necessary 
increase of expenditure to be met either by appropria- 
tions from the State treasury or by local taxation, or 
by both. 

NOTE. 

Since the foregoing was written, several European 
countries, such as England, France, Austria, and others, 
have made great progress towards the adoption of the 
principle of not only affording a certain amount of 
elementary education to all the children of the state, 
but of requiring they should actually receive it. 

In New England, compulsory education has substan- 
tially existed for upwards of two centuries, under the 
old law of Massachusetts, of 1642. That law enacted 
that " Forasmuch as the good education of children 
is of singular behoof and benefit to any commonwealth, 
and whereas, many parents and masters are too in- 
dulgent and negligent of their duty in that kind, it 
is ordered that the chosen men appointed for managing 
the prudential affairs in the several precincts and quar- 
ters where they dwell shall have a vigilant eye over 
their neighbors, to see, first, that none of them shall 
suffer so much barbarism in any of their families as not 
to endeavor to teach by themselves and others their 
children and apprentices so much learning as may 
enable them to read perfectly the English tongue, and 
to get knowledge of the capital laws, upon penalty of 
twenty shillings for each neglect therein." 

It was in the exercise of this same authoritative 
parental oversight that Massachusetts again, in 1836, 



32 EDUCATION. 

forbade the employment of children under fifteen in 
factories, unless such children should have attended 
school for three months in the preceding year. Such 
an ordinance was a virtual compulsion of attendance 
for at least that period in each year, on the part of all 
children for whom employment was desired, since 
without the attendance the employment could not 
lawfully be given. The provision, slightly modified, 
still exists in that State, and has been put also on the 
statute books of other States. 

So much for original American ideas as to compul- 
sion. 

Turning to laws directly compulsory, we go a little 
back of the date of the above report, in 1871, to make 
sure of giving a full history of progress in this direc- 
tion. 

Vermont, November 21st, 1867, passed, and Novem- 
ber 23d, 1870, amended, a law requiring every child of 
good health and sound mind, between eight and four- 
teen years of age, to attend a public school at least 
three months in each year, unless otherwise furnished 
with the means of education for a like period, or unless 
such child should have already acquired the branches 
of learning usually taught in public schools. No child 
of this age to be employed in mill or factory without 
attendance upon school for three months of the year 
preceding. Penalty, in either case, ten dollars to 
twenty dollars. 

Michigan, April 15th, 1871, passed " An act to com- 
pel children to attend school" — i. e. } all of good health 
and sound mind, between eight and fourteen — for at 
least twelve weeks in each school year, of which at 



EDUCATION. 33 

least six weeks must be consecutive. Penalty for first 
offense, five dollars to ten dollars ; for subsequent ones, 
ten dollars to twenty dollars. 

Texas, April 24th, of the same year, put on her 
statute book a law requiring the attendance of all her 
scholastic population on the public schools of their 
respective districts for at least four months of every 
year. Penalty, up to twenty-five dollars. The law, 
however, was dropped in the revision of 1876. 

New Hampshire, July 14th, 1871, enacted that every 
person having charge of any child between eight and 
fourteen, residing in a district where a public school is 
taught, for an annual period of twelve weeks or more, 
within two miles of his residence by the nearest 
traveled road, must cause such child to attend such 
school for at least twelve weeks in every year, six 
weeks at least to be consecutive, unless excused for 
reasons specified. Penalty for first offense, ten dollars ; 
for any subsequent one, twenty dollars. 

Connecticut, in 1872, amended her truant laws of 
1865 and 1869, authorizing cities and towns to make 
all needful regulations concerning truants and vagrant 
children, to arrest them by the hands of the police, and 
to commit them, after a third arrest, to a house of 
correction or reformation for a period not over three 
years. 

Massachusetts, also, in 1873 and 1874, amended her 
truant law, making it require every person having 
under his control a child between eight and fourteen, 
to send such child to public day-school for at least 
twenty weeks in each year, divided into two terms 
of ten consecutive weeks each, unless the child has 



34 EDUCATION. 

attended a private day-school approved by the school 
committee for a like period, or is regularly attending 
a half-time school so approved, or has been otherwise 
furnished with the means of education for a like 
period, &c, &c.* 

Nevada, February 25th, 1873, passed "An act to 
compel children to attend school," — ages eight to 
fourteen ; term of attendance at least sixteen weeks 
in each school year, eight of which to be consecutive. 
Penalty for first offense, fifty to one hundred dollars ; 
for second, &c, one hundred to two hundred dollars. 

Kansas moved in the same direction in 1874, by 
passing, March 9th, "An act requiring the education 
of all healthy children;" i. e. } all between eight and 
fourteen to be sent to school for at least twelve weeks 
in each year, six of which must be consecutive. Pen- 
alty, ten to twenty dollars. 

New Jersey came next, with a law passed March 
27th, 1874, and amended April 9th, 1875, requiring 
parents and guardians having charge of children be- 
tween eight and fourteen, to cause them to attend 
some school at least twelve weeks in each year, six of 
which must be consecutive ; or to be instructed at 
home for the same period in the branches commonly 
taught in the public schools, unless excused for cause. 
Penalty, three dollars for every week during which, 
after notice from the district clerk, there has been a 
failure to comply with the provisions of the law. 

California followed closely after New Jersey, pass- 
ing, March 28th, 1874, "An act to enforce the educa- 
tional rights of children." All between eight and 

* See several reports of the Hon. J. D. Philbrick, of Boston, on this subject. 



EDUCATION. , 35 

fourteen to be sent to a public school two-thirds of 
the time for which said school shall be taught in the 
place of the children's residence, twelve weeks of the 
time to be consecutive, unless excused by the school 
board for reasons specified. Penalty for first offense, 
twenty dollars ; second and so on, twenty to fifty 
dollars. 

New York, May nth of the same year (1874), 
passed, and in 1876 amended, an act with almost 
as pleasant a title as that of California, calling it "An 
act to secure to children the benefits of elementary 
education." Provisions as to age, eight to fourteen ; 
term of attendance for each year, fourteen weeks, 
eieht of which must be consecutive. Alternative of 
school attendance, instruction at home for at least 
fourteen weeks each year in spelling, reading, writing, 
English grammar, geography, and arithmetic. None 
under fourteen to be employed in any business during 
the school hours of any school day in which a public 
school is taught in the place of the child's residence. 
Penalty, fifty dollars. 

Laws kindred to these have been passed in Maine 
and Arizona, and one is said to have been passed re- 
cently in Ohio. But as copies of them have not been 
yet received, the precise date of their passage and the 
precise conditions they impose cannot be now given.* 

Unfortunately, it must be acknowledged that the suc- 
cess of the efforts thus made to secure the universal 
education of the children in these States has not, in 
all cases, been altogether satisfactory ; but has varied 

* The foregoing statistics have just been obtained from the Bureau of Educa- 
tion, at Washington. 



36 EDUCATION. 

according to the wisdom, and thoroughness of the le- 
gal provisions, and especially according to the stimulus 
afforded by popular sympathy to their energetic and 
faithful execution. 

It is to be particularly regretted that Pennsylvania 
has not been found prepared to place herself among 
the progressive States on this question. A better 
public sentiment among us needs to be aroused, 
shaped, and concentrated, before we can have a com- 
pulsory law, and still more, before such a law can be 
effectually enforced. The popular mind must be 
brought to a clearer apprehension of the appalling 
magnitude of the evil which such a law alone will rem- 
edy ; to a clearer apprehension of the absolute neces- 
sity of universal education to the safety and perpetuity 
of republican institutions based upon universal suf- 
frage. The suggestion that the popular mind cannot 
be so trained, is the suggestion of apathy or of des- 
peration. The stale objection that compulsory educa- 
tion is inconsistent with democratic or republican or 
American ideas, is a mere prejudice or a downright 
impertinence. It is to be presumed that democratic, 
republican, and American ideas are not suicidal; are 
not inconsistent with what can be shown to be re- 
quired by the public good and the very safety of the 
Commonwealth ; and so the only proper and perti- 
nent question in this case is, whether compulsory edu- 
icaton is so required. But is it verily a democratic and 
American idea that, while universal popular education 
may be a good thing in a monarchy or despotism, there 
is no need of it in a free State ? Besides, there is a 
class of men in society who should remember that it is 



EDUCATION. 37 

their office to bestir themselves to lead public senti- 
ment, instead of being idly and passively led by it. If 
the efforts of the Board of Public Charities on this sub- 
ject had been zealously seconded by other parties who 
have had it in their power to exert an effective if not 
a controlling influence in the case ; if they had exerted 
such an influence in accordance with their own personal 
convictions of what was demanded by the public good ; 
if they had boldly and manfully stemmed the opposing 
current of misguided popular prejudice ; it is confi- 
dently believed that, before this time, public sentiment 
in Pennsylvania would have been brought to such a 
pitch that we should not only have a law of compulsory 
education upon our statute book, but such a law carried 
into actual, thorough, and beneficent execution. 



SCHOOLS OF REFORM. 

DESTITUTE AND DELINQUENT CHILDREN. 

In the annual report of this board for 1871, we en- 
deavored to show that vice and crime were largely the 
offspring of ignorance, and we recommended a system 
of universal education, which would certainly embrace 
those classes of the youth of the State who were most 
exposed, through the far-reaching influences of " illit- 
eracy," to a violation of law and order ; and in our 
report for the following year, we reiterated the same 
view, and have shown by reliable statistics, First, that 
one-third of all prisoners are totally uneducated, and 
four-fifths are practically uneducated ; and Second, that 



3& EDUCATION. 

the proportion of prisoners from the illiterate classes 
is at least ten-fold as great as the proportion of those 
having some education. This is no longer an idea 
or speculation ; it is a well-recognized truth, and has 
been so accepted by the more cautious and reflecting 
communities, both at home and abroad. Prussia has 
acted upon it with the most marked and beneficial 
results, and has been emulated by other continental 
powers, as we have already shown. The statesmen 
of France are co-laborers with her philanthropists in 
the endeavor to solve the problem of their nation's 
fluctuating political embarrassments, and believe they 
will find its solution in the state's neglect of the 
education of the people. They find unquestionably 
there that the crime of the country is largely the 
result of ignorance and mental impotence, and this 
fact is most strikingly confirmed by the following 
statement of the illiteracy which prevailed in the 
French prisons in the years 1867 to 1869, given in 
the report of the International Penitentiary Con- 
gress : — 

Whole number of arrests, 444,133 

Number unable to read, 442,194 

Or 95.63 per cent. 

Whole number of convicts, 18,643 

Number unable to read, 16,015 

Or 87.28 per cent. 

Average number of juvenile prisoners, 8,139 

Number unable to read, 6,607 

Or 81.14 per cent. 

In Great Britain no measure of public policy is so 
much relied on for the elevation and amelioration of 



EDUCATION. 39 

the condition of the people, and the firm prosperity 
of the state, as common-school education. It has 
been well said, that " education is a force restraining 
vice and crime." Where it is purely intellectual, it 
restrains by teaching the truth that "honesty is the 
best policy/' Where it rises to the dignity of a Chris- 
tian education, it includes, also, the higher restraint of 
the conscience. It may be safely stated as an irre- 
futable proposition, that the state which neglects the 
education of her youth, prepares them for vicious, 
degraded, and criminal lives, which are spent in dep- 
redating upon society, and in infecting by example, 
by contaminating and debasing influence, the lives of 
others, which would otherwise prove exemplary and 
useful. 

The United States Commissioner of Education pre- 
sents the following results of an examination of the 
statistics of pauperism in the three States of Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and Illinois, — States not inferior to any in 
popular education. Take one million of persons from 
the population of these three States, in numbers pro- 
portioned to their population respectively, and the 
conclusion will be nearly as follows : — 

Population, 1,000,000 

Paupers, 8,000 

Illiterate paupers (totally), . 45, 000 

Illiterate paupers, 4,800 

Thus of the whole population, there are illiterate 
between four and five per cent. ; of paupers, illiterate, 
sixty per cent. These results clearly demonstrate that 



40 EDUCATION. 

the want of education is the want of facilities to ac- 
quire employments, and to work profitably in them. 

The evil, therefore, which society suffers from illiter- 
acy in its relation to crime and pauperism, has not been 
exaggerated in our reports, and its influence upon com- 
mon labor is not less prejudicial, and presents the most 
surprising and suggestive lesson. This is so well pre- 
sented by Dr. Edward Jarvis in his contribution to the 
recent report of the National Bureau of Education, that 
we shall adopt his clear statements and their practical 
application to almost every department of industry. 

Dr. Jarvis says: — "Beyond the mere knowledge of 
facts and principles, there are other advantages equally 
important and valuable, that grow out of the process 
of study and acquisition. The training and discipline 
of the school quicken and energize the mind, and 
give it a facility of applying itself and its varied facul- 
ties to manifold purposes." 

" Thus boys and girls who are educated and trained 
to reflect by the studies of the school, carry their power 
and habit of mental action with them to whatever pur- 
suit they may address themselves. In the various 
employments of their maturer life, whether they are 
laborers, farmers, mechanics, or workers in any other 
sphere, whatever may be the material on which they 
operate, whatever may be the transformation they may 
desire to effect, or results they may attempt to produce, 
they enlist the co-operation of their sharpened percep- 
tions and disciplined reason in the plan and perform- 
ance of their undertakings." 

" Muscular force alone is not sufficient to fulfill the 
just demands of labor. It needs to be directed and 



EDUCATION. 41 

measured, so that a blow shall be given, aimed aright 
in the proper direction, reach the intended point, and 
produce the desired effect. The hammer must hit the 
head of the nail, the axe the place where the wood is 
to be divided. The blow must not be so strong as to 
crush and injure, nor so weak as to fail of effect and 
be lost." These principles are applied in an analysis 
of various processes of labor, from the sawing of wood 
and the weaving of cloth to the most delicate opera- 
tions of the skilled mechanic and the plain artist ; and 
the conclusion is reached, that education is the econo- 
my of force, and gives it a greater power to create 
value. It creates skillfulness which has the ability to 
add to the value of material, which cannot be attained 
by ignorance. 

11 The cost of educating a laborer — of setting him 
to think and fitting him to expend his forces to advan- 
tage — is very small. The few years of youth, when the 
body is comparatively weak, the expense of teachers, 
books, &c, are but small expenditures compared with 
the gain. The return in increased productive power 
is great and permanent. It is the difference between 
the large and certain and the small and uncertain 
produce." 

It is clear, then, that the interests of the State are 
promoted by the education of the people, and that no 
class can be safely excluded from its beneficial influ- 
ences. But are the provisions which the legislature 
has heretofore made, or will be allowed to make under 
the amended Constitution, sufficiently comprehensive 
to embrace all ranks and conditions, or rather, will not 
those who most need the wholesome discipline and the 



42 EDUCATION. 

enabling influences of education be practically ex- 
cluded ? 

The meeting of the Constitutional Convention during 
the past year, has been an occasion of especial interest 
to this board ; for wise and prudent as are many of 
the measures it has offered in amendment of the late 
Constitution, it has, we think, greatly embarrassed a 
question, in whose solution lies one of the highest 
interest to every community, and of the State herself, 
in a most eminent degree. 

We refer to certain provisions which passed that 
body, restrictive upon the education of the poor chil- 
dren of the State. While the animus of the Convention 
seemed more favorable to universal education, and 
some of its acts afford a larger opportunity for certain 
classes of youth of the Commonwealth to enjoy more 
securely, and perhaps more largely than in the past, 
the advantages of education, it practically overturned 
both the injunction and spirit of the late Constitution, in 
curtailing the rights of the poor to the enjoyment of 
State aid in their education ; and in positively forbid- 
ding it on the part of the several municipalities of the 
Commonwealth in combination with the aid of any 
private agency. The education of the most ignorant 
of the children of the State has been practically cut 
off, unless a more liberal action on the part of the 
legislature shall counteract the ill effects of the constitu- 
tional provision in this behalf. 

If education is needed, it is needed by the illiterate. 
It was the prime object of the convention which framed 
the late constitution to provide an education for the poor 
gratis. The well-to-do will effect this in some respect- 



EDUCATION. 43 

able manner, whether the State helps them or not. 
But the destitute child of the State cannot obtain it 
without the State's aid, or the aid of the particular 
municipality which owns it. Such child is most sig- 
nificantly a ward, and to the ward of the State or the 
municipality, as the case may variously be considered, 
has the convention denied all practical relief from the 
evils of ignorance. We say, " practical relief," for that 
relief cannot be given effectually without combining with 
the provision made by the public the aid of private 
efforts and private benefactions. This, the nature of 
the case, and all experience, combine to demonstrate. 

This board took an early interest in this matter as it 
came before the convention, and we are entirely con- 
vinced that its action in relation to it was caused by an 
inadequate consideration of the subject. 

The idea that " charity" must attend upon any pro- 
ceeding or device to draw the destitute and neglected 
children of the State out of the abyss of ignorance, 
and consequently of uselessness, and of vice and crime, 
for which they furnish the main material, seemed to be 
the effectual motive in inducing the passage of the 
restrictive measures referred to. By the provision of 
section seventh of the article on taxation and finance, 
municipalities are forbidden to appropriate money for 
any corporation, association, institution, or individual. 
None of the cities or counties of the State may aid 
private effort in the rescue and amendment and in- 
struction of the debased and ignorant and vagrant 
children within their borders ; and they are precluded, 
also, by the same provision, from contributing to the 
education of the blind and the deaf mute and the 



44 EDUCATION. 

imbecile ; or to appropriate money to the houses of 
refuge or schools of reform, because they are private 
corporations. This is the plain and obvious con- 
struction of the section referred to. 

By section eighteen of the article on " legislation," 
the legislature is forbidden to make any State grant to 
any charitable or educational institution conducted by 
religious bodies, and by section seventeenth it is for- 
bidden to aid any charitable and educational work con- 
ducted in any institution which is not " absolutely 
under State control," excepting by a vote of two- 
thirds of all the members elected to the legislature ; so 
that in case of every grant to either of what are called 
the State institutions, excepting the two penitentiaries 
and the hospitals for the insane at Harrisburg and 
Danville, an overwhelming majority must always be 
secured in order to obtain support to the institutions, 
or for their extension, if desirable. And, as respects 
the destitute and orphan children of the Common- 
wealth, a like restriction is placed upon the State's 
affording aid in their education, although private benefi- 
cence may be offered to feed and clothe them, while 
pursuing an educational and industrial training. Is it 
probable that the State will expend the millions of 
money necessary to purchase these " private corpora- 
tions," or establish State schools for vagrant children ? 
Or, even if she should do so, would she not fail in their 
administration ? Has it ever occurred that the defect- 
ive classes were effectually benefited, without the 
co-operation of that warm humanity which stimulates 
private zeal and benevolence ? 

The subject of the training and education of the 



EDUCATION. 45 

destitute and neglected children of the State has been 
presented to the legislature very fully in our previous 
reports. 

Its importance is not less grave than that of the most 
momentous questions of state concern, which can en- 
gage your attention. There is absolutely no provision 
made for the "education" of this class by the legisla- 
ture or by any municipality within the bounds of the 
Commonwealth. The almshouses are of course open 
to them, and such education as is found in them, but 
they would go there only by constraint, and neither 
themselves nor the community would be the gainers by 
their residence in such refuges. Still the fact that the 
various municipalities of the State make certain provi- 
sion for the needs of their indigent population, is an 
argument with many legislators, that the State is not 
called upon to provide for the education of this desti- 
tute class of the youth of the Commonwealth, who can 
never avail themselves of her legislation and her bounty 
in behalf of universal education. That this class of 
children is not reached by the public schools is undeni- 
able. It is manifest wherever free schools exist, and 
wherever even "compulsory education" obtains. The 
Prussian system, it is true, has become so thoroughly 
established by long usage, and its influences have so 
permeated all ranks and conditions of the people, that 
it has made the most salutary inroads upon the habits 
of the debased and vagrant population of youth, and 
large accessions of this low element have in a course 
of years become prepared for reception into the com- 
mon schools. In England the elementary education 
act of 1870, which is of a compulsory character, has 



46 EDUCATION. 

been found entirely ineffective in reaching the destitute 
children of the land. Like the blind and the deaf mute, 
they remain "outside" because of. some deficiency, 
which is as despotic and restraining as the want of 
speech or sight is to the former. 

It is the deficiency of home care and guardianship, 
and for this they are no more responsible than are 
other defectives. To this class they belong. They are 
of the "unfortunates " of the State, wherever the State 
exists, in Europe or America, in New York, New Eng- 
land, or Pennsylvania ; and they must have some kind 
of substitution for the lost parent or the abandoned 
parent or the degraded parent, as the raised letter 
must be resorted to in the instruction of the blind, and 
the manual alphabet for the deaf mute, in order to 
make it possible for them to receive the benefit of 
school education. Thus their destitution may be cared 
for by private benevolence, and thus they may be pre- 
pared to receive from the State the educational advan- 
tages which more favored youth obtain without such 
supplementary aid. 

If private bounty will feed and clothe them, shall not 
the State aid in their education ? If the poor should 
be taught gratis, shall these, the poorest of the poor, 
be excluded ? If neither private bounty nor public aid 
relieve them, they must beg or steal or do some uncer- 
tain or degrading work, in order to obtain the food 
whereby to live and the clothing to cover their naked- 
ness, for they must be fed and clothed, however meanly, 
whether they are taught or not. Must they starve or 
go naked in order that they may avail themselves of 
the educational provisions of the law ? We say em- 



EDUCATION. 47 

phatically, No ! and take the ground that where this 
want of parental guardianship is supplied by private 
effort and private benevolence, the State should do her 
part in their educational work, by making moderate 
per capita allowances to schools or homes established 
by private and philanthropic enterprise, wherever they 
are needed, for the industrial training and education of 
the class referred to. The State should, as a matter of 
course, exercise a right of inspection, and see that the 
money she grants is not squandered or misapplied, and 
should reserve the power of revoking its sanction and 
withholding its aid, whenever she judges that there is 
occasion for such course. 

This fundamental evil, which, if not met and over- 
come, will render abortive all attempts at an appreci- 
able reduction of crime and pauperism, and all efforts 
towards an increasing and healthy amendment of the 
morals of the lower classes, has been appreciated in 
many of our American communities, and in countries 
where the necessity is less paramount than it is in a 
democratic land. The system above recommended for 
its abatement and suppression has received in England 
a recognized status from the government, and the 
schools established by it are aided by government 
grants, and are practically employed as a part of the 
machinery of the educational work of the state. By 
this course of procedure (which, it is true, was long 
denied by the authorities and adopted only after it had 
been commended to their favor by the surest evidences 
of its efficiency in aiding the government to fulfill its 
desire and its duty), it was made manifest at the late 
International Congress, by indisputable testimony, 



48 EDUCATION. 

namely, by authenticated returns from prisons and 
reformatories, that the condition of the whole juvenile 
population of England has been changed ; and, in the 
language of a distinguished member of that body, "the 
system has cut up juvenile vagrancy by the roots, and 
has almost destroyed juvenile crime in many localities. " 
It surely cannot be said that in such a work as that 
referred to, the utilization of private benevolence and 
economy for the public good, in the manner suggested, 
need compromise any doctrine or principle of any citi- 
zen or any party in the State, or excite the antagonism 
of any person or community whatever. But, looking 
from the standpoint from which this board is bound to 
survey the subject, namely, in its relations to human 
degradation, pauperism, and crime, it is believed that 
great danger is threatened to the State, in denying 
opportunites of education and improvement to the 
neglected classes of her children, and that a wrong is 
inflicted upon them and will be perpetuated until full 
and practical legislation is effected to rescue them from 
the fetters which restrain their mental and moral 
improvement. Charity is not involved at all in the 
measure proposed to your honorable bodies. It is only 
a right which is commended to your protection and 
vindication. 

In a communication to your honorable bodies, made 
last year, which accompanied our report on the appli- 
cations for State aid, we proposed to submit a scheme 
to the present legislature, which should present a uni- 
form system of State policy and State aid to a class of 
institutions which might be beneficially encouraged by 
moderate per capita grants towards the education of 



EDUCATION. 49 

the class of children who should be received into 
them. 

This subject has been thoughtfully considered by us, 
in the interval, and we have exhausted, as we believe, 
the field of investigation and of thought, which is at- 
tainable. We have reached the conclusion, which we 
have set forth and recommended in this report, and 
present a scheme to your honorable bodies, of an im- 
partial and general character, which is intended simply 
to place a class of children, whose condition needs the 
strengthening and ameliorating influences of education 
more than that of any other class, upon a like, though 
by no means an equal, footing with the less dependent 
children of the State. 

We perfectly understand that it will require a fuller 
vote to accomplish the aid we seek for these abandoned 
children, but we trust that the apparent disfavor which 
the Constitutional Convention has seemed to cast upon 
this just and rightful work, will not be responded to by 
your honorable bodies, but will rather stimulate you to 
more earnest desire and effort to do justice to those 
whose neglect will assuredly be avenged upon the 
honor, the purity, and also the material wealth of the 
community. 

The board submitted a memorial on this subject to 
the convention, while in session, and by resolution 
ordered it to be incorporated in this report, as com- 
pletely expressing their views, and sustaining them by 
arguments, which they think should have been conclu- 
sive with the convention. The following letters from 
Mary Carpenter, the noble gentlewoman and distin- 
guished philanthropist, and from Dr. Wines, well 



50 EDUCATION. 

known for his labors in measures for the prevention of 
crime ; who, expert themselves in questions of reforma- 
tory discipline, have also witnessed the practical opera- 
tion and have seen the demonstrated results of such a 
scheme for the education of neglected and abandoned 
children as we now recommend; give unsolicited ex- 
pression to the views of strangers to our borders ; 
views which we happen to know are fully endorsed by 
many statesmen and philanthropists, who have known 
of the efforts of the Board of Public Charities in favor 
of the measure of public policy proposed. The letters 
are as follows : — 

Geo. L. Harrison, Esq., 

President of the Board of State Charities, 

My Dear Sir : — I thank you most sincerely for the 
copy of your memorial in behalf of the education of 
neglected and destitute children, lately submitted to the 
Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania. I cannot 
but hope that an argument so cogent, so thoroughly 
unanswerable indeed, as your paper embodies, will 
have its effect upon the enlightened body to which it is 
addressed. It is only to-day that I received a letter 
from Mr. E. Carleton Tuffnell, inspector of the *pauper 
schools of England, in which he speaks of the excel- 
lent fruits of these institutions. 

Among other things, he says, " there are in the 
pauper schools of London alone eight thousand chil- 
dren, all of the lowest class, who, under the system 
now pursued, are not only saved from a life of vice and 

* One branch of the system of industrial schools of Great Britain. 



EDUCATION. 51 

crime, but turn out among the most valuable and pro- 
ductive members of society." These schools are all 
strictly industrial, and under the supervision of the 
" local government board." To me it seems the most 
natural thing in the world that your Constitutional Con- 
vention should not only encourage but welcome the 
co-operation, and especially the initiative of private be- 
nevolence, in the work of removing from the body 
politic the terrible plague-spot which you have so 
clearly and forcibly called to its notice and recom- 
mended to its consideration. If the convention fail to 
take the action recommended by your board, or some 
action equivalent, such failure can, it seems to me, be 
attributed only to the want of a thorough grasp and 
comprehension of the question. It is really a question 
of the healthy and vigorous action, if not indeed in the 
end of the very existence, of republican institutions. 
The instinct of self-preservation, it would seem, should 
lead the convention in the direction indicated by your 
memorial. 

That God may help you in this work is the wish and 
prayer of 

Yours, truly and faithfully, 

E. C. WINES. 

320 Broadway, New York, October 20th, 1873. 



Red Lodge House, 
Bristol, England, November 17th, 1873. 

Geo. L. Harrison, Esq., President, &c., 

Dear Sir : — I have just completed the perusal of 
the very important documents which you have just sent 



52 EDUCATION. 

me, respecting the course taken by the convention, 
concerning neglected and destitute children. I am 
perfectly astonished at the retrograde proceedings 
adopted by that body, in obstructing or almost pre- 
venting the past course of voluntary benevolence, and 
absolutely ignoring the just claims of the children of 
your Commonwealth, every one of whom has an abso- 
lute right to justice and equal advantage with every 
other. Your arguments are admirably developed ; 
they are virtually the same as those which we have 
been bringing before the Committee of Council on 
Education for a quarter of a century, with respect to 
the same neglected class ; and our appeal has not been 
unheeded. 

I trust that you will rouse public opinion to support 
you. It will be a great misfortune to your State to 
pass laws so contrary to the spirit of the age. I re- 
joice to see the tone of the public press, and hope you 
will kindly keep me informed of progress. 

Respectfully, yours, 

MARY CARPENTER. 

There are two classes of these vagrant and aban- 
doned children which demand the educational care and 
training claimed for them; otherwise they become the 
enemies of order and good government. One of these 
classes is perpetually replenished from the other, as it, 
in turn, swells the ranks of maturer vice and crime. 
Those who have absolutely fallen into crime may be 
suitably provided for in our houses of refuge, especi- 
ally if they be made less like juvenile jails, and be 



EDUCATION. 53 

administered by a less repressive and penal system of 
government. But amongst these criminal youth, many 
of them graduates in wickedness, there are numbers 
whose faults are slight and venial, and whose trans- 
gressions have occurred solely through parental neglect 
or orphanage, and multitudes of these throng the alleys 
and courts and streets of all our larger communities, 
and become tenants, at length, of the hospitals and 
poor-houses and jails of every portion of the State. 
This is the class of children which is not reached by 
the State provision for universal education, and which 
that system never will or can reach. They do not 
need the exacting and constraining discipline which is 
necessary in houses of refuge, but they need to be 
touched and impressed by a guardianship assimilated 
to proper home training, and strengthened by the 
discipline of school and industrial education to resist 
temptations and learn to realize the enjoyment of 
earning a support by honorable employments. 

The system which has been successfully adopted in 
Great Britain has proved itself adequate to this end. 
It is the system of day industrial schools, into which 
certain classes of children are received, either volun- 
tarily or by commitment, if they will not or cannot 
attend the ordinary elementary schools. These classes 
embrace, first, children found begging, receiving alms 
habitually, living in the streets or about public places ; 
second, those found in vagrancy having no home, nor 
fixed dwelling-place, nor guardianship ; third, the des- 
titute, either who are orphans or whose surviving parent 
is in prison, or who will not submit to parental or 
other authority; fourth, children under twelve years of 



54 EDUCATION. 

age, accused of crime, but who have never been con- 
victed of a felony. 

These schools are all conducted on the family 
system, and are in all respects schools and do not at 
all resemble penal establishments. They give element- 
ary instruction and industrial training, the object being 
to provide for the children an education which will 
enable them to earn for themselves a living, and 
become useful members of society. The school boards 
have power to establish these day industrial schools, 
and to certify them as fit and proper, when established 
by voluntary effort, and also to make certain per capita 
allowances to the managers. The English law has 
decided that education should be compulsory, but not 
in all cases gratuitous, and power is given to recover 
from the parent, when he can afford it, the whole or 
part of the cost of the education of the child ; and 
from the guardians of the poor the whole expense of 
food and education, if the child is chargeable. The 
religious question is not involved at all in the case of 
these schools. Where the entrance is voluntary they 
can choose the schools conducted by managers of 
their own religious creed ; and when sent by the 
magistrates the child's " religion " is first ascertained, 
and he is sent to a school of the same persuasion. 

Such is the outline of the British method of accom- 
plishing the education and industrial training of the 
neglected and destitute children, and, as already shown, 
it has been eminently successful. We recommend the 
adoption of a similar system for this Commonwealth. 
We shall not err in following any good example. It 
would be folly to reject a scheme because it has been 



EDUCATION. 55 

projected and carried to success by strangers. We 
therefore ask legislation which shall establish a plan, 
kindred to what we have described, for the education 
and industrial training of our own vagrant and aban- 
doned children, which shall prove effectual in prevent- 
ing the crime and the pauperism that result from 
ignorance and idleness. As the maintenance of a 
convict costs, upon an average, $200 a year, and as 
he generally remains a criminal, it is clearly the part 
of true wisdom to adopt the more economical method 
of a preventive measure, which will save the State's 
money, and reduce its proportion of crime. 

At the session of the British Local Science Asso- 
ciation, recently convened in England, Miss Carpenter 
proposed the subject, " How can education be brought 
to bear on the hitherto untouched portion of the 
population." It was demonstrated that notwithstand- 
ing all the provisions made by the government and by 
private individuals, interested for the protection and 
education of young offenders and destitute children in 
reformatories, in certified industrial schools (which are 
private reformatories, accepted as such by the govern- 
ment), and in workhouse schools, a large residuum 
remained, who are untouched by any educational insti- 
tutions, and who furnish a constant supply to these 
expensive boarding-schools. These neglected children 
still remained, although the school board had for three 
years endeavored to reach all. Such has been our 
own experience. It is clear and indisputable, then, that 
a fresh agency is needed. These children are half- 
civilized and half-fed. They cannot be admitted into 
the common schools. They require special schools 



56 EDUCATION. 

where they will be taught industry as well as learning, 
and where they will receive some food which will enable 
them to remain the greater part of the day. These 
schools can be maintained at a very moderate cost to 
the State, — probably not over twenty dollars a year for 
each child ; and they would extend the benefits of a 
suitable education and training to the lowest in the 
Commonwealth; from whom prisons and workhouses 
and reformatories are constantly recruited at a great 
loss to the State. 



MEMORIAL 

From the President of the Board of Public Charities to 
the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania. 

On behalf .of the Board of Public Charities, the 
undersigned begs to present to the Constitutional 
Convention some considerations bearing upon the 
seventeenth and eighteenth sections of the proposed 
article on " legislation," containing certain restrictions 
upon legislative appropriations. These sections, it is 
understood, have already been passed to a third read- 
ing, but were so passed before the article on education 
had been definitely acted upon. 

The attention of the convention is, in the first place, 
respectfully invited to the present state of its constitu- 
tional provisions in reference to popular education, 
(i) The constitution is to require in general the main- 
tenance of a thorough and efficient system of public 



EDUCATION. 57 

schools, offering the opportunity of an elementary 
education to all the children of the State. (2) A 
constitutional provision for compulsory education has 
been rejected by the convention. (3) A provision for 
the establishment by the legislature of special schools 
for "neglected children" has also been rejected. (4) 
The municipalities as well as the legislature are to be 
forbidden to aid such private institutions as now exist 
for that purpose (section seven, taxation and finance).* 
That is to say, with the exception of this last restric- 
tive provision, the common-school system of the State 
will be left substantially as it was before, the legisla- 
ture being required to continue without diminution its 
annual appropriations. 

In the second place the attention of the convention 
is respectfully recalled to a few of the simple facts of 
the case : — 

1. According to the returns of the census of 1870, 
there are within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
more than two hundred and twenty-two thousand 
persons above ten years of age unable to read or write, 
and probably the true number of such is not less than 
three hundred thousand or four hundred thousand, of 
which from seventy-five thousand to one hundred 
thousand are under the ag-e of twentv-one, and of these 
last, twenty thousand or more are congregated in the 
single city of Philadelphia. 



* Sec. 7. The General Assembly shall not authorize any county, city, borough, 
township, or incorporated district to become a stockholder in any company, 
associaiion, or corporation, or to obtain or appropriate money for, or to loan its 
credit to, any corporation, association, institution, or individual. 



58 EDUCATION. 

2. This large army of neglected children, growing 
up in idleness, ignorance, vice, and crime, who are not 
only destined to increase our taxes, to endanger our 
property, and disturb our peace, to infest our highways 
and streets with mendicancy, pillage, and violence, to 
crowd the docks of our court-rooms and fill our alms- 
houses, jails, and penitentiaries, but who are soon to 
exercise with us and over us the sovereignty of the 
elective franchise, marching up to the polls with added 
thousands of new recruits every year — these are the 
cancerous source of what is probably the greatest 
peril to which our Commonwealth and free institutions 
are exposed. 

3. This evil the common-school system, as at present 
organized, can never reach and remedy. It is to be 
understood that under the description of " neglected 
children " are meant to be included not only those who 
lose the benefit of the free public schools from the 
carelessness or willfulness of parents, but those also — 
and theirs is the greater number — who are deprived 
of those benefits in consequence of their destitution of 
any parental guardianship ; of their vagabond lives, 
and their want of the very means of subsistence if they 
should go to school ; of their ragged and filthy condi- 
dition, or their depraved and vicious habits, or their 
intractable characters, rendering them unfit to be re- 
ceived at school with the other children, or making it 
improper or impossible for them to be retained there. 
The reclaiming and education of these children could 
not be secured even by any law of compulsory attend- 
ance at school merely, but means must also be 



EDUCATION. 59 

provided to supply them with food and clothing and 
proper domestic guardianship while they may be re- 
ceiving their education at school. If compulsion is 
needed elsewhere, charity also is needed here. Our 
schools may be ever so open and free, and sufficient 
for all, but these children will still remain outside. 
This is the lesson not only of our own past experience, 
but wherever the system of free schools has been tried 
— whether in Europe or America, in Old England or in 
New England, in New York or any other of our sister 
States. It has been found necessary to supplement the 
system either by private benefactions or public appro- 
priations for the care and support of this class of desti- 
tute and neglected children. It is clear that they have 
not yet been reached by our system of public schools, 
admirable and thorough as has been its management 
for several years past. Nor are they likely to be 
reached by it, for it would seem by the superintend- 
ent's last report that the chronic evil of absenteeism 
from the schools has of late increased rather than 
diminished. Unless some modification or enlarge- 
ment of the present instrumentalities is adopted, there 
is no reason to hope that the public schools will ever 
remedy the evil. 

4. But to reach and remedy this evil is precisely 
the chief end of the common-school system. These 
children are precisely those whose education the State 
needs to care for. Most of the children of well-to-do 
parents, and who have good domestic care and train- 
ing, will be tolerably well educated whether the State 
provide schools for them or not. It must not be 



60 EDUCATION. 

supposed, therefore, that the public schools have very 
nearly accomplished their purpose, while only this 
residuum remains unaffected by them. Rather we 
must remember that while this remains — and remains 
in its present enormous proportions — they have en- 
tirely failed of attaining their principal object. 

Now the legislature may do either or both of those 
things which the convention has refused to require or 
recommend, (i) It may adopt the principle of com- 
pulsory education for the whole Commonwealth, or 
may authorize its local adoption. (2) It may establish 
either directly or indirectly, through the local authori- 
ties, special schools for neglected children. Otherwise, 
under the proposed section seventen,* if adopted, such 
children must be left to be cared for, if cared for at 
all, exclusively by private agencies, without any aid, en- 
couragement, or co-operation whatever from the State 
in any case, or from the local authorities, unless such 
agencies should be organized outside of the influence 
and control of all religious bodies. So that, in this 
case, the State would either have to do the whole 
work, at the public expense, or would have no guar- 
antee that such children would be cared for at all ; for 
the aid of religion is not invoked, and private benevo- 
lence, unprompted and unsustained by the religious 
sentiment, even though receiving a questionable and 
precarious support from municipal bounty, can hardly 
be sufficient for the whole reliance. 



* Sec. 17. No appropi-iation shall be made to any charitable or educational 
institution not under the absolute control of the Commonwealth, other than nor- 
mal schools established by law for the professional training of teachers for the 
public schools of the State, except by a vote of two-thirds of all the members 
elected to each house. 



EDUCATION. ,' 6l 

Under such circumstances, what is the wisest course 
to take ? Shall the legislature, by the adoption of this 
section seventeen, be practically required to do the 
whole work or nothing ? Or, by a modification of this 
section, shall it be left untrammeled to adopt the inter- 
mediate course of encouraging the partial efforts of 
private benevolence by its fostering aid ? This is the 
question. 

But is the legislature, in any event, likely to under- 
take the whole work ? Is there not reason to fear that 
should the convention finally adopt this section seven- 
teen, as it is proposed, they will, under all the circum- 
stances, practically give the full weight of their authority 
and influence in favor of leaving these neglected chil- 
dren absolutely to their fate, without the slightest effort 
to help or save them, and thus suffer this plague-spot of 
the body politic to grow and fester, and spread its 
pestilential infection without restraint or remedy ? Is 
it said that the legislature will still have the power to 
introduce the system of compulsory education, either 
universally or partially, and thus to reach and remove 
the evil ? But by this course, by this means alone, the 
whole evil cannot be reached and remedied ; and be- 
sides, the convention has solemnly refused to require 
or recommend such a course, stamping it with its im- 
plied disapproval. Is it said that the legislature may 
establish or authorize the particular municipalities to 
establish special schools for the care and instruction 
of this class of children ? But the convention has 
positively frowned upon such a plan. Is it said that 
the local civil authorities may aid the efforts of private 
benevolence in supporting such schools ? But the 



62 EDUCATION. 

convention has sternly forbidden them to aid any such 
institutions as now exist for that purpose, and has not 
proposed the establishment of any others. Is it said 
that at least the State itself may afford such aid by 
direct appropriations ? The convention will have for- 
bidden it unless a full vote of two-thirds can be ob- 
tained for it. 

That is to say, even though a large majority of the 
people, through their chosen representatives, may for 
years and years seek to do it, they shall not, so long as 
one-third remain opposed ; in other words, the ante- 
cedent probability that it is wrong or unwise to do it, is 
held to be as two to one ; so that to effect it shall require 
that sort of earnest zeal and public agitation, and that 
overwhelming majority which might be required to 
change the fundamental law or revolutionize the form of 
government. But is it said that, at all events, the con- 
vention will not have forbidden private benevolence to 
exert itself to any extent, and under the impulse of 
any motives whatever, for the rescue and amendment 
of these poor, neglected outcasts ? This is true ; but 
then the convention had no power to make such a for- 
mal prohibition. And yet it may seriously be asked 
whether, if section seventeen be adopted with the rest, it 
will not appear that the whole moral influence of the 
action of the convention will tend to dampen any sym- 
pathy that might be felt for this class of children, and to 
paralyze any efforts that might be made in their behalf 
in any quarter or in any form. But be this as it may, 
there seems, as a matter of fact, but little reason to 
expect that for some time to come, and until a great 
pressure of public opinion can be concentrated on the 



EDUCATION. ; 63 

subject, the legislature will be induced to adopt a thor- 
ough system of compulsory education or to establish 
special schools for this class of neglected children, to 
be exclusively supported at the public expense. The 
undersigned, as is well understood, is in favor of both 
of these plans, and for himself knows of no sufficient 
reason against them ; but the reasons, whatever they 
may be, which have weighed with the convention 
against them, and have led to a decision which 
precludes their further discussion here, will be likely, 
it is presumed, to weigh with a majority of the legis- 
lature, backed up, as they may seem to be, by the 
authority of the convention itself. And may it not 
pertinently be asked, why it is that while both of these 
plans of doing the whole work by State authority 
and at the public expense — though liable to such ob- 
jections that they are not likely soon to command the 
support of a majority of the legislature — are never- 
theless left untrammeled to the discretion of that body ; 
yet this other plan of encouraging and supplementing 
private efforts by State aid, not being liable to the same 
objections, and being at any time likely, it may be pre- 
sumed, to have a majority of the legislature in its 
favor, should be absolutely forbidden, or compelled to 
secure the support of full two-thirds of all the mem- 
bers of both houses ? Why not trust a majority of the 
people and their representatives in one of these cases 
as well as in the other ? Why not allow them, if they 
will, in order to abate an enormous and crying evil, 
and to accomplish a great public good, to adopt a course 
which is felt to be less liable to popular objection, as 
well as another which is felt to be more so ? 



64 EDUCATION. 

Is it said that special restriction is required in this 
case, because such legislative action is liable to abuse? 
But all legislative power is liable to be abused or ex- 
ercised unwisely, and we must take this risk or abolish 
government altogether. The true questions are, first, 
is the proposed action, in matter and form, a proper 
subject of State legislation? and, second, is it demanded 
for the public welfare ? As to the former question, that 
this is a proper subject of legislation is indirectly admit- 
ted by its being allowed on a two-thirds vote ; and as 
to the latter question, it is admitted on all sides that the 
rescue and education of these neglected children would 
be a great public benefit ; many of us think it essential 
to the very existence and permanence of our free in- 
stitutions. Shall we then commit political suicide lest 
the legislature should make a political blunder? Shall 
we abdicate the very power of promoting the public 
weal because that power may be abused ? Shall the 
public good be neglected or even put under the ban, 
because the legislature cannot always be trusted to do 
what is best? Shall the people not be allowed to 
manage their own affairs according to their own dis- 
cretion, because, through their representatives, they 
may not always manage them wisely ? Shall we once 
for all acknowledge the experiment of representative 
self-government a failure? 

But perhaps this particular form of legislative action 
is thought to be specially liable to abuse. Is it so ? 
Has such a disposition been shown by the Legislature 
of Pennsylvania or of other States to squander the 
public money in educating or aiding to educate desti- 
tute children, that it should need to be specially guarded 



EDUCATION. •> 65 

against in the very constitution ? Even if religious or 
ecclesiastical bodies should come forward and offer to 
establish schools for the education of such children, 
adding moral and religious instruction, it is difficult to 
see why that in itself should be a bar to the bestow- 
ment of State aid towards the support of such schools ; 
and probably if there was but one form of religious 
belief and profession in the State, it would not be so 
considered. But where there is a variety of religious 
creeds among us — while there are several sects and 
denominations in earnest rivalry and conflict with one 
another, and while religious partisanship remains so 
strong as it is — so strong as often to override all other 
motives and considerations — it may freely be admitted 
that for the legislature to make appropriations from 
the public funds in aid of sectarian institutions, how- 
ever excellent their general objects and tendencies, 
would be an exercise of power especially liable to 
abuse. But this form of abuse being effectually 
guarded against in this section eighteen as well as in 
section two of the article on education,* is there any 
such special liability to abuse in making the appropri- 
ations contemplated in section seventeen as should 
require the special prevention of the two-thirds vote ? 
The institutions to be aided will not be sectarian, not 
under the control of any religious denomination, not 



* Section 18. No appropriations, except for pensions or gratuities for mili- 
tary services, shall be made for charitable, educational, or benevolent purposes, to 
any person or community, nor to any denominational or sectarian institution, 
corporation, or association. 

Sec. 2. No money raised for the support of the public schools of this Com- 
monwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian 
school. 



66 EDUCATION. 

for private gain or emolument, not addressed to the 
special interests of any party, ecclesiastical or politi- 
cal ; they will simply aim, by private efforts and bene- 
factions, to accomplish some of those charitable and 
educational purposes in which the highest interests of 
the State are most deeply involved, and for which the 
State makes no adequate provision by her general 
system of public schools. Shall the legislature be 
permitted freely to aid such institutions ? 

If attention is called to the great cost of the institu- 
tions, whether schools, refuges, or homes, here contem- 
plated, and if the danger of their demanding exorbitant 
drafts from the public treasury is urged in favor of a 
restriction of appropriations in their behalf, the answer 
is, those institutions will not hold the purse-strings, and 
those who do hold them are not likely to give more 
than, in their judgment, the public good requires. The 
question is, shall they be restrained from giving as 
much? For the State to impose such restraint upon 
itself seems little short of absurdity. Indeed, this is 
the last of all directions in which to limit the public 
expenditure. Economy here is eventual extravagance, 
and extravagance the surest economy. The public 
benefit resulting from a removal of the evil in question 
would abundantly repay all the cost, even though the 
whole were drawn from the public treasury. But it is 
to be especially noted that the plan here in view is one 
which is contrived to relieve the public treasury instead 
of burdening it, always presuming one thing, that the 
end contemplated is acknowledged to be demanded by 
the general good, and that the State recognizes her 
interest in the removal of so great an evil. The State 



EDUCATION. ; 67 

might justly and wisely assume the whole expense, but 
the present suggestion is, that, in case the establishment 
and support of the remedial institutions be thrown, in 
the first instance, on private benevolence, the legisla- 
ture, without being hampered by any special restric- 
tions, should then be permitted to make, from time to 
time, such appropriations in encouragement and aid of 
such institutions as should be deemed wise and reason- 
able, and consistent with the most rigid economy of the 
public funds. And it is respectfully suggested that the 
same economical motives which weigh in the minds of 
the members of the convention may be confidently 
counted upon to weigh in the legislature with quite 
sufficient force to keep its appropriations for such 
objects, and under such circumstances, within due 
bounds.* At all events, the State would pay but a 
part of the price for the benefit which it would receive. 
If it be objected that the evil is local, and that the 
whole State ought not to be taxed for the relief or 
benefit of certain particular communities, the answer 
is three-fold : — 

1. Then surely those communities should be allowed 
to tax themselves for the removal of the evil, and to 
economize in that taxation, by availing themselves, as 
far as they should see fit, of all the aid they could ob- 
tain from private sources. 



* The total sum appropriated by the Legislature of Pennsylvania to local 
charities, embracing hospitals, homes, dispensaries, asylums, &c, &c, from 
1752 to 1872, exclusive, a period of one hundred and twenty years, amounts 
to $377,000, including the sum of $70,000 granted by the Provincial Assembly 
to the Pennsylvania Hospital, during the latter half of the last century. 



68 EDUCATION. 

2. By far the greater part of all taxation is for the 
direct benefit of others than those who pay the taxes. 
The very idea of a state involves the principle of 
mutual protection and helpfulness, in which, after the 
analogy of a mutual insurance, the stronger parts give 
the weaker more than they receive. The state is built 
upon a community, a solidarity, but not a perfect 
equality of individual interests. When the different 
parts, instead of consenting in mutual co-operation, 
fall into dissensions, and jealousies of section with 
section, marshaling east and west, or city and country, 
or agriculturist and manufacturer, or rich and poor 
against each other, the very existence of the state is 
endangered, and its proper purpose and object are 
annulled. But if the State is not to be taxed for the 
removal of the evil because it is local, how large a 
community is to be taxed for that purpose — a county, 
a whole city, a ward, a precinct, or each individual on 
his own account? The evil is not equally distributed 
over any area, however small, short of each individual's 
domicile ; and when that is reached it is precisely some 
other individual or individuals that must be taxed for 
its removal. Besides, the whole common-school system 
is especially liable to the objection in question. Here 
the rich are taxed for the education of the poor; those 
who have no children for the education of the children 
of others ; and the State taxes herself by the million 
to distribute her aid to the different localities and com- 
munities, giving most to those places where the most 
children are found to need the appropriation. 

But the evil is, after all, by no means so purely local 
as seems to be generally assumed. It exists and is 



EDUCATION. 69 

formidable in all the counties of the State. If the evil 
is greater in one part of the State than in another, it 
cannot be confined to that portion, but will spread its 
effects far and wide. And if one portion of the State 
remedies the evil within itself, the beneficial conse- 
quences of such remedy will be shared by all the other 
parts of the State. This dangerous element is, of 
course, found mainly in the thickly-settled communities, 
and there it must be encountered and dealt with. 
Eventually it is found in maturity all over the State, 
spreading its corrupting influences, filling our prisons 
and almshouses, and festering with disease in the 
hospitals. Under proper State inspection, surely the 
legislature should be allowed to aid, say by a per 
capita allowajice, industrial and other schools, conducted 
by private individuals for the rescue of such children 
from the ruin which, in nine cases out of ten, is sure 
otherwise to overtake them and the State, from the 
blighting influences of their degraded and criminal 
lives. If, for example, there are twenty thousand 
neglected children in Philadelphia, and if, in the rest of 
the State, there are fifty or sixty thousand instead of 
the more exact proportion of seventy or eighty thou- 
sand, is this a reason for regarding- die evil as in such 
sense local, that the State has no common interest in 
it? It is undoubtedly more concentrated where the 
population is more concentrated, and there, from its 
very concentration, it becomes not only more conspicu- 
ous, but more fearfully dangerous. But are not the 
safety and prosperity of the State largely bound up in 
the safety and prosperity of the city? May not the 
corruptions of the city spread their contaminating 



70 EDUCATION. 

influences into the State ? May not the accumulation of 
ignorant and unprincipled voters in the city control the 
elections and revolutionize the political character of the 
State ? Does not the State assume to govern the city 
and bind it by the constitution and laws which it 
makes ? And would the State allow the city to pro- 
tect itself, for instance, from the increase of this 
dangerous element, by prohibiting the ingress into its 
limits of the families of ignorant and destitute 
foreigners ? If the city should remedy this evil within 
its own boundaries, would not the State reap a double 
benefit, in the first place, so far as the city is a part 
and a large part of the State, and secondly, by the dis- 
tribution from the city into other parts of the State of 
great numbers of industrious and well-educated and 
respectable, instead of idle and ignorant people ? And 
will the State refuse to pay anything for the common 
benefit ? For it is again to be observed that, on the 
plan now proposed, the city, through its private bene- 
factions, together, perhaps, with its municipal appropria- 
tions, would assume the principal weight of the burden, 
and the State would come in with only such aid and 
encouragement as it might see fit to bestow. Shall all 
such appropriations by the State be forbidden or hamp- 
ered with such restrictions as may practically amount 
to a prohibition ? 

The legislature, it may be finally said, cannot be 
trusted with an arbitrary control of the people's treas- 
ury ; the people cannot be sure of having honest and 
intelligent legislators. What, then, is the true remedy ? 
Will you, by constitutional provisions, secure as far as 
possible the thorough education of all the people in 



EDUCATION. ' 71 

knowledge and virtue, and guard with every possible 
barrier the purity of elections ? Or will you leave 
thousands and tens of thousands of children to grow 
up in ignorance and vice and thus assume the elective 
franchise, only providing constitutional barriers against 
any aid being given to the State for their education ; 
and then proceed to restrain the legislature and strip 
it of its accustomed powers, and thus and so far deprive 
the very people of the functions of self-government? 
That the legislature cannot be trusted means that the 
people cannot be trusted. To restrain the legislature is 
to restrain the people. If the legislature may not make 
laws, the people cannot make them ; for the people 
have no other organ than the legislature whereby to 
perform that function. Is it not inverting the order of 
things to leave the people in ignorance, and then re- 
strain their legislature ? Would it not be better to 
secure the intelligence of the people and the purity of 
their elections, and then trust their chosen representa- 
tives ? It is true that the legislature may be once for 
all constitutionally restrained from meddling with mat- 
ters where experience has shown that their interference 
is productive of more harm than good to the State. 
But the education of the people — the thorough educa- 
tion of all the people — is admitted on all hands to be 
pre-eminently a matter of high public concern, and a 
proper subject of State legislation. It is submitted, 
therefore, that this is a case in which, beyond all others, 
the legislature should be left free. 

A draft of section seventeen, modified in accord- 
ance with the views thus imperfectly expressed, is with 
great diffidence herewith submitted. To require the 



72 EDUCATION. 

inspection of the institutions in question, and the special 
recommendation of aid to them, by a board of commis- 
sioners appointed for the purpose by the governor, the 
legislature, or the department of the interior, if such 
a department should be created, is thought to furnish 
a sufficient guarantee against improper or wasteful ap- 
propriations. It is presumed that the wisdom of the 
legislature could easily frame a law, by which private 
beneficence, municipal co-operation, and State aid, 
might all be combined and concentrated upon the same 
great end, leaving the institutions in question, so far as 
they should require no compulsory or penal action, to 
the simpler or cheaper methods of private manage- 
ment ; thus utilizing private benevolence and economy 
for the public good. Shall the Constitution of Penn- 
sylvania, instead of encouraging and facilitating such 
a result, only throw obstacles in the way of its accom- 
plishment ? 

A modified draft of section eighteen is also ap- 
pended, in which the prohibition of appropriations to 
sectarian institutions is made absolute, the clause for 
charitable, educational, or benevolent purposes being 
omitted. It is not perceived why against just those 
purposes there should be an expression of such special 
antipathy. Shall the legislature be allowed to make 
appropriations /# anything and for anything, provided 
only that it should not propose thereby to aid any 
charitable, educational, or benevolent purposes ? May 
the legislature make appropriations, for example, for 
a peculiarly ecclesiastical or religious purpose, for 
building a church, or paying the salary of a clergyman 
of any denomination ; and yet shall it be forbidden to 



EDUCATION. ' 73 

aid in the education of its own outcast children in a 
school established and supported by such a denomina- 
tion ? It is not supposed that such a distinction was 
intended. It is therefore suggested, as most consonant 
with the presumed purpose of the section, and the pro- 
hibition against all such appropriations be made once 
for all absolute and universal. 

It may be well to mention here — for the fact is not 
generally known even to legislators — that but four of 
what are called " State institutions," of a permanent 
character, are "absolutely" under "State control." 
These are the Eastern and Western Penitentiaries, the 
Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital, at Harrisburg, 
and the Hospital for the Insane of the Northern District 
of Pennsylvania, at Danville. All the others are pri- 
vate charitable corporations, to which the legislature 
has been in the habit of orantinor State aid at each 
session, in the same manner precisely as it has done 
to the former. Shall the education of the blind and 
the deaf and dumb be restricted by a two-thirds 
rule, because private beneficence originally founded 
these institutions and continues to share the expense 
of maintaining them ? Is it well to curtail the oppor- 
tunities of the insane poor to admission into that noble 
asylum at Dixmont, because it exists under the same 
conditions? or to prejudice the claims of delinquent 
children to the reforming influences of the refuses of 
Allegheny and Philadelphia counties, or feeble-minded 
children to education and maintenance in that model 
training-school of Delaware county? The supposed 
impolicy of encouraging and aiding private zeal and 
benevolence, in the work of the education and reform of 



74 EDUCATION. 

neglected children, has long been practically disavowed 
by those enlightened governments of Europe which 
have shown any interest in the improvement of 
this juvenile class as a measure of philanthropy or 
political concern. More especially has this been 
the case in Great Britain, which has given all such 
schools a recognized status, supports them largely, 
and allows, in the case of the private reformatories, 
the magistrates to send children for detention in 
them. The government accepted this policy, how- 
ever, only after it had been incontestibly shown that 
reformatory schools could be thus established and 
their objects most successfully attained. It had been 
found there, as it is most lamentably the case in this 
State, that the refuges or reform schools, which main- 
tain the unelastic character of State establishments, 
and which mingle together, as they must, the highly 
criminal youth with the barely offending ones, guard- 
ing them all as criminals by strict surveillance and 
within high walls, take more or less the form and com- 
plexion of prisons, and that the children discharged 
therefrom are reearded with some such distrust as at- 
taches to discharged convicts, and the disposal of the 
inmates to eligible situations is exceedingly difficult — 
as a rule, almost impossible. " The results of this 
(the later) system," writes the Rev. Sydney Turner, 
inspector of the reformatory and industrial schools of 
England, " have been very encouraging," In many 
schools of either class, eighty per cent, and upwards 
have turned out well after their discharge ; and these 
results are taken from the returns which the managers 
of each school have to make for the three years succeed- 



EDUCATION. : 75 

ing each inmate s discharge, of his character and circum- 
stances. The results are seen still more decidedly in 
the diminution of the numbers of the younger class of 
criminals, and the lighter character of the crimes of 
which our juvenile offenders are now more commonly 
found guilty. 

"In the year 1856, when this system began to be in 
more active operation, the number of juvenile of- 
fenders committed for one year was 13,981 ; in 1858, 
when the system had spread and taken root, the num- 
ber sank to 7622; and in 1870, in spite of the very 
large increase of our population, the number of young 
offenders committed was but 9998." 

Submitted with great respect by your memorialist 
and humble servant, 

GEO. L. HARRISON, 

President. 

Philadelphia, September 15th, 1873. 



SECTIONS 17 AND 1 8 MODIFIED. 

Section 17. The legislature may make appropria- 
tions to such normal schools as may be established by 
law, for the professional training of teachers for the 
public schools of the State ; and in aid of schools or 
homes which maybe established under provisions of a 
general statute for the care and education of such 
vagrant or abandoned or destitute and neglected chil- 
dren as cannot be gathered into the public schools ; 
but no appropriations shall be made to any charitable 



7 6 EDUCATION. 

or educational institution not under the absolute con- 
trol of the Commonwealth, except upon the special 
recommendation of a board of commissioners ap- 
pointed by law to visit and inspect such institutions. 

Sec. i 8. No appropriation shall ever be made to 
any ecclesiastical, denominational, or sectarian institu- 
tion, corporation, or association, nor shall any appro- 
priation (except for pensions or bounties for military 
service) be made by way of gratuity to any person or 
community whatever. 



REFORMATION OF NEGLECTED, DESTITUTE, 
AND VICIOUS CHILDREN. 

Our suggestions hitherto have related only to the 
amelioration of poverty and the cure of crime in the 
community. We have reached now the more import- 
ant and hopeful subject of the prevention and final 
eradication of both ; vice and misery are not limited to 
the adult classes who fill our prisons and almshouses ; 
if they were, the certainty of their extirpation would be 
but a matter of time. But behind these poor wretches 
range their children, line after line, from youth to 
infancy, the " serried ranks of woe," with the sign of 
their heritage of want and guilt upon their faces, 
pressing forward to take their turn in the prisoner's 
dock, the poor-house, or the jail cell. 

Common sense tells us every day that each of the 
hungry, vicious, filthy children, that we pass in our 
streets or alleys, is driven inexorably by want and 



EDUCATION. ' J J 

ignorance, year by year, nearer to one or the other 
of the dead-locks in life ; driven there to become 
not only a burden upon the State, but an active evil 
influence in it ; and, more than this, the most tragical 
of all spectacles the world can offer, a depraved human 
soul, charging before God its loss and ruin upon 
society. To busy ourselves alone with mature and 
developed crime, and to ignore the breeding mass of 
embryo vice beneath, from which it is steadily supplied, 
is to attempt to dam the river at its mouth when it has 
grown into an irresistible torrent, which but a trifling 
effort would have dried up at the fountain. 

The present generation is learning wisdom slowly 
in this matter. In England, Germany, France, and in 
the local and private efforts for their instruction and 
reform in this country, the weight of influence is 
brought to bear upon the children rather than the 
adults of our dangerous classes. The reform of the 
hardened convict, weighted with the habits and asso- 
ciations of half a life-time, will usually do no more than 
make him passive in either good or evil, while the 
education and moral training of a child eives us an 
active element of orood in the State. 

Such efforts for prevention of crime among us are, 
as we stated, but local or private. The Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania has been especially tardy and 
languid in her recognition of their utility. Her total 
contribution to the homes, asylums, hospitals, &c, 
through which these lowest classes of the poor are 
reached, has been, for the one hundred and twenty 
years ending in 1871, but $377,000, while the first 
cost of one of her penitentiaries for crime exceeded a 



78 EDUCATION. 

million and a half. Nor is the interior machinery of 
government in the Commonwealth employed as yet 
in the rooting out of this quick-growing crop of crime. 
Vice matured is cherished and cared for, with so little 
attempt at reform, that it would seem as if its genera- 
tion rather than regeneration were the object to be 
attained. Every county has its jail and poor-house 
filled with idle paupers and prisoners, a dead weight 
on the working, honest tax-payer, while there are but 
two schools of reform in the State where the immature 
pauper or prisoner can be stopped short in his career, 
taught habits of thrift and industry, and given a handi- 
craft which will enable him to become a useful and 
self-supporting citizen. 

The blind folly of this preference for the punish- 
ment rather than the prevention of crime is equaled 
only by that of the farmer, who should expend his 
time and strength, year after year, in cutting down per- 
petually renewed crops of weeds, instead of occupying 
his ground with wholesome grain, which would yield 
him fair and abundant harvests. 

What, then, is the first step in the prevention of 
crime ? We answer, education ! The statistics of 
every country prove the large proportion which the 
illiterate bear to the whole number of criminals. 

It is estimated that in the sixteen Southern States 
two-thirds of the prisoners are illiterate, while in the 
rest of the Union more than one-third are so ; which 
gives us about one-half the whole number of prisoners 
as without education. In the prison statistics of New 
York City (where crime, its causes and results are con- 
densed with photographic clearness for the expert) it 



EDUCATION. : 79 

is reported that in 1 871, in a population of 942,242, 
there were 62,238 persons unable to read and write ; 
but of 51,466 prisoners in that year 19,160 were illiter- 
ate, showing that, of the ignorant class, one in three 
committed crimes, while of those who could read or 
write the proportion of offenders was as one in twenty- 
seven. 

There is no need, however, to multiply such statis- 
tics as these ; the experience of every man tells him 
that the ignorant are weak and fall stupidly and easily 
into error. 

In Massachusetts, in the same year, out of 97,742 
illiterate, 4791 were criminals — that is, one in twenty, 
while the proportion of criminals in the class who had 
received a primary education was as 1 to 126^. In 
the penitentiaries and county jails of our own State, 
practically one-half of the inmates are illiterate. 

We are aware that it is often declared that " merely 
to read and write will not diminish crime or make 
better citizens." But the practical alternative is not 
between a knowledge of reading and writing on the 
one hand, and habits of morality and religion on the 
other; but between so much knowledge as is involved 
in reading and writing and no education at all ; be- 
tween so much knowledge as that or blank ignorance 
or a training only in habits of vice and crime. 

But we believe that there is a natural affinity be- 
tween knowledge and good morals ; between the 
normal culture of the intellect and of the heart ; be- 
tween truth and rectitude; and that even the mere 
knowledge of reading and writing increases both the 
means and the tendency to acquire both the knowledge 



80 EDUCATION. 

and the habits of virtue and good morals. And, be- 
sides, such instruction is not obtained to the exclusion 
of moral and even religious training. Ninety-nine in 
a hundred of the teachers in the public schools of 
Pennsylvania are and will continue to be moral, and 
nine-tenths are religious persons. Such instruction 
and training radiate constantly, in an unconscious in- 
fluence, from the person, bearing, and example of the 
teacher, even where formal lessons and special exer- 
cises are not employed to promote them. 

Any scheme for the redemption of neglected and 
vicious children, however, is incomplete which simply 
aims to quicken their brains ; the habits of thought 
must be made wholesome and pure, just as cleanly 
habits of body are inculcated; their moral sense must 
be awakened, and self-respect cherished ; and their 
conceptions of God elevated and vitalized by being 
brought to bear on their daily life. 

There is a vague belief in the public mind (and a 
consequent apathy thereon) that this moral training 
ought to reach a child through domestic influences, 
and that the State is only responsible for the intellect- 
ual instruction which the public schools supply. These 
schools, it is argued, are amply sufficient to educate the 
eighty thousand to one hundred thousand persons in 
the State under the age of twenty-one who are unable 
to read and write. Acting under this conviction, the 
constitutional convention refused to extend to them 
any other relief, and hindered the action of the legisla- 
ture by requiring a two-thirds vote before further aid 
from the State could be extended to them. The argu- 
ment appears plausible. The State provides a costly 



EDUCATION. 8 1 

machinery of education, and if certain classes will not 
avail themselves of it the loss and punishment must 
be theirs. 

We present the plain facts of the case. The schools 
are, as a rule, so admirable that they are used not only 
by the working but wealthier classes. Rules of clean- 
liness, neatness in dress, &c, are established which 
effectually exclude the ragged, filthy hordes who need 
this training most ; and the demands upon the intel- 
lectual exertions of the children in the schools of the 
large cities are so great, and the display at the "exhi- 
bitions" so costly, that it requires the most wholesome 
and plentiful food to enable a child to bear the physi- 
cal strain of the one, and no small expenditure of 
money to meet the demand of the other. It sounds 
well in theory to point to our school-houses as a gift 
of the State to the poor, but the actual fact is that the 
hungry little beggar at their doors has no more chance 
of admission than Lazarus into the gates of Dives. 

Of this class there are some twenty thousand in the 
city of Philadelphia alone, and a like proportion in the 
other large cities. Even if they were accepted they 
would not enter the schools, as they are either utterly 
homeless or the children of parents unable to feed and 
clothe them, and they are obliged to keep up their 
wretched lives by either begging or theft. We point 
you to this army of destitution and vice and ask what 
shall we do with it? Barred out from the public schools ; 
barred from the trades by the stringent laws of the 
trades-unions; in lack of food and clothing, what is 
left to them but crime ? Paris, in the hands of her neg- 
lected, ignorant poor, gives us a suggestive warning. 



82 EDUCATION. 

Ignore their condition but a few years longer, and 
with the ballot-box in their control, the problem of the 
hour may be, what will they do with us ? 

We propose as a remedy for this evil, first, the con- 
tinued aid of the State to reformatory schools, and the 
alteration of these schools into institutions bearing less 
of a penal and more of a domestic and educational 
character. In connection with this point we highly 
commend the contemplated change of place and char- 
acter in the Pennsylvania Reform School, which is to 
be removed from Allegheny City to a large farm, — the 
family system in lieu of the congregate having been 
adopted, and the inmates instructed in agricultural 
work. The tilling of the soil offers in this country the 
surest chance of employment and the certain removal 
to a distance from the temptations of city life. The 
percentage of children trained into good citizens by 
these schools is set down at sixty at the lowest. These 
reformatory schools are intended, however, only for the 
treatment of the real or quasi criminal. There is a 
large number of children in them whose sole fault is a 
refractory temper or vagrancy, and whose association 
with the openly vicious can only result in their cor- 
ruption. 

This class and the swarms of youthful beggars out- 
side of the schools have offered a sad and terrible 
problem for the consideration of thoughtful men in 
every country. The problem has been solved in Scot- 
land, England, and in some parts of our own country, 
by what means and with what success a few brief state- 
ments will effectually demonstrate. 

The first industrial school was opened in the loft of a 



1840. 


1870. 


28o 


None. 


2,230 


349 


370 


79 



EDUCATION. ' 83 

blacksmith's forge, in Aberdeen, under the direction of 
Sheriff Watson, who originated the plan in 1841, "with 
half a dozen boys dragged in by the police." The re- 
sults of the industrial school system thus established 
were : — 



Children supported by theft or beggary, . . , 
Adult vagrants in rural districts for five years, 
Children, 



Thefts reported from 1845 t0 ^50, one thousand 
one hundred and forty-two ; 1865 to 1870, three hun- 
dred and sixty-one. 

These schools in Aberdeen were the prototypes of 
all industrial schools in Great Britain. In order to 
insure the attendance of the street Arabs, dependent 
for food on their own thefts or begging, a soup kitchen 
was attached to the schools and the police were author- 
ized to arrest all children beeeino; and brino- them in. 

Reformatory schools received the sanction of Parlia- 
ment, in Great Britain, in 1853, and industrial schools 
in 1854. By subsequent acts they were placed under 
the control of the home office, and an allowance 
granted, per capita, for the education and maintenance 
of the inmates. There were one hundred of the cer- 
tified industrial schools in 1872 in successful operation 
in England and Scotland, under control of different 
religious or charitable associations, and they are sup- 
ported in part by voluntary contributions, by govern- 
ment grant, by payment from parents, who send their 
children voluntarily, and by profits in the industrial 
department. 



8 4 



EDUCATION. 



In some of these schools the children are fed during 
the day and return to their homes at night ; in others 
they are fed, clothed, and lodged. The children are 
governed by the family system, educated as their future 
position requires, and trained to be practical farmers, 
sailors, shoemakers, carpenters, bakers, weavers, &c. 

The girls are educated in the use of the needle and 
sewing-machine, in laundry work, cooking, house- 
wifery, &c. 

The total number admitted into these schools 
amounted at the last official returns to 25,376. Of 
those discharged, the percentage was — 



Doing well, 
Doubtful, . 
Convicted, . 
Unknown, . 
Died, . . . 




In 1856, before the reformatory and industrial sys- 
tem was put into operation, the number of commit- 
ments to prison of children under sixteen was 13,981. 

In 1870, with a fourteen years increase of population, 
the commitments were 9998. 

Mr. Barwick Baker, who founded the first reforma- 
tory school in England, on his own estate, thus testifies 
to the success of the system : — 

" In Gloucester, in 1844, we had seven jails and eight 
hundred and seventy persons. In 1872, we have pulled 
down six out of the seven, and have but one hundred 
and seventy inmates in that." 



EDUCATION. 



85 



An example of the benefit derived from a system of 
industrial schools, differing in detail from those in Eng- 
land, is found near at hand. 

In 1852 and 1853, special attention was directed in 
the city of New York to the subject of juvenile va- 
grancy and crime, and associations were formed for the 
prevention of crime. The machinery put in motion by 
these societies were industrial schools and the removal 
of children to homes in the West. Of these schools 
thirty-six are maintained by one society alone. The 
aggregate attendance at the whole of them reaches 
13,606. 

The action of these associations is unaided by the 
State, and unenforced by law. There is, therefore, a 
lack of thoroughness and force in the system which 
that of Great Britain possesses, yet the result in ten 
years of their vigorous and humane efforts, which we 
append below, is startling in its success. 



i860. 

Girls. 



1871. 
Girls. 



Arrests for vagrancy, . . 
Arrests for pocket-picking 
Arrests for petty larceny, 

Decrease, 



2,161 ! 

59 

959 

3.179 
1,858 



495 

3 

823 



i,3 21 



i860. 

Girls. 



Commitments for vagrancy, 
Commitments for petty larceny, 



' 5,88o 
890 



6,770 
i 5 4i7 



Decrease, 5,353 



1870. 

Girls. 



671 
746 



1,417 



86 



EDUCATION. 



Arrests for vagrancy, 

Arrests for pocket-picking, . . 
Arrests for petty larceny, . . . 

Commitments for vagrancy, . . 
Commitments for petty larceny, 



i860. 

Boys. 



1,800 

407 

2,987 



5^94 



1870. 

Boys. 



46-1871 
3^7i 



4,548 



i860. 

Boys. 



2,708 
2,575 



5.283 



1870. 
Boys. 



1,378 

2,241 



3>6io 



According to the increase of population, the increase 
of crime should have been twenty per cent., instead of 
which the commitments of girls for vagrancy, as we see, 
diminished in ten years five thousand. " Nothing,'' 
says Mr. Brace, who presents this record, " can account 
for this diminution of crime but moral and preventive 
measures ; for during that time a terrible war has oc- 
curred with all its necessary evils, and several panics 
and prostrations of business." 

We need adduce no further proof of the efficiency 
of the plan which we propose, viz., that industrial 
schools shall be introduced and assisted by the State. 
The support of a child in one of these, as we stated in 
our last report, will cost the State twenty dollars per 
annum. The support of the same child matured into a 
criminal will cost her $200 per annum. " Our system 
of industrial schools," says a Swede, "is costly, but not 
dear. We cannot afford to let a child grow up in 
ignorance and vice." 

Still less can we afford it when the ignorant and 



EDUCATION. ' 8/ 

vicious adult will shortly help to make the laws which 
are to govern us. 

The plan we offer is neither costly nor difficult. 
Considered from the lowest point of view, that of 
economy, by the statistics given above, it will save the 
Commonwealth in ten years the expense of at least 
one-third of her present number of criminals; con- 
sidered in regard to its humane aspects, we believe it 
to offer the only means, at once rational and Christian, 
by which the seething mass of ignorance and crime 
which underlies society, here as elsewhere, may be 
reached, and greatly reduced or wholly eradicated. 

Profoundly impressed by the truth of the sugges- 
tions which we have made to your honorable bodies 
on this highly important subject, this board has ven- 
tured to prepare a bill for your consideration, which 
will not only effect the purpose of the suggestions, but 
which will also establish an impartial and uniform 
system respecting all those classes of institutions which 
provide for the maintenance and education of destitute 
and neglected children. 

We append to our report on this subject a state- 
ment of the numbers, ages, &c., of the inmates of the 
two houses of refuge or reform schools in the State. 

STATE REFORMATORIES. 

Of this class of institutions there are two in Penn- 
sylvania, viz., the Philadelphia House of Refuge, and 
the Pennsylvania Reform School in Allegheny county. 
The number of juvenile delinquents confined in them 



ss 



EDUCATION. 



on September 30th, 1874, was respectively as fol- 
lows : — 



SEX AND COLOR. 



House of 
Refuge. 


Reform 
School. 


371 


200 


87 


66 


458 


266 


99 


2 5 


40 


10 


J 39 


35 


597 


301 



Recapitula- 
tion. 



White boys, 

White girls, 

Total white, 

Colored boys, 

Colored girls, , 

Total colored, , 

Aggregate of white and colored. 



57i 
J 53 



124 

50 



724 



174 



The number in both institutions on September 30th, 
1874, was eight hundred and ninety-eight, the white 
being in proportion to the colored as eighty-one to 
nineteen. It will be observed that but few colored 
delinquents are confined in the "Reform School," their 
proportion to the white being but twelve to eighty- 
eight. In the "House of Refuge, " which has a special 
department for the colored inmates, we find that their 
ratio to the white is as twenty- three to seventy-seven. 
The average age of those committed during the year 
was 13.9 years, or white delinquent 14.5 years; colored, 
13.4 years. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 



PRISON DISCIPLINE. 

Prison discipline is one branch of the science of 
government, and, like every other department of that 
science, it is progressive. New ideas respecting its 
purposes and new methods of reducing them to prac- 
tice will, of course, be developed by patient observa- 
tion of facts and careful deduction of the principles 
which they teach. 

The moral and physical evils of incarceration have 
been much abated as Christianity and civilization 
have advanced. Prisons are spoken of as existing at 
the times of the patriarchs, seventeen hundred years 
before the Christian era; but it is believed that they 
did not become an established part of the organism 
of the state until the rise of the baronial or feudal sys- 
tem, in the tenth and eleventh centuries. A writer 
says : — " The prison, as we know it, is as entirely an in- 
stitution of modern Europe as the church, the school, 
and the poor-house. Words occur connected with 
events and customs in the eastern world which we can 
only translate into modern language or thought by the 
use of the word 'prison;' but the thing, as we now 
know it, in the shape of the county jail or the convict 

(89) 



90 PRISON ECONOMY. 

prison, was, then, neither known nor anticipated. A sys- 
tematic committal to prison, as a specific punishment, is 
a thing of which it may be safely said that no trace can 
be found in the practices of ancient nations that have 
come down to us." In early times "prisons" were often 
excavations in the earth, encased with solid masonry, or 
dug out in the living rock, and men were dropped into 
them as into huge bottles, or placed in recesses in the 
sides and built in with stone and mortar, to drag out a 
miserable and, sometimes, protracted existence ; death 
offering the only hope of relief. 

In despotic countries, the policy of the government 
has often been to cut off all facilities for the identifica- 
tion of prisoners. When they fell into the hands of 
power they lost all connection with the living world, 
and their actual death was known only to the subal- 
terns to whose keeping they were committed. 

In the reign of Louis XIV. ( one of a race of kings 
who assumed that states existed for the support of 
royalty in luxury and self-indulgence ) the French 
Parliament was aroused to do something for the pro- 
tection from the law's delay of persons seized and in- 
carcerated on charges (sometimes altogether futile and 
malicious) for which they had not been tried, and to 
secure for their cases an early investigation ; and at 
length extorted a promise that the case of every im- 
prisoned person should have judical cognizance within 
twenty-four hours after his arrest. But the fact of im- 
prisonment without trial, and often without guilt, was 
scarcely a greater cruelty there and elsewhere than 
the treatment of those adjudged guilty and sentenced 
to incarceration. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 91 

In the reign of George II., through lack of govern- 
mental control, and the irresponsibility of the wardens 
of prisons, greater cruelties were practiced than were 
common under the most absolute despots. Hogarth's 
picture of the grated window in one of the dungeons 
of Fleet street, records better than words of descrip- 
tion the miseries of imprisonment in his time. 

When these outrages were exposed, Parliament com- 
mitted itself so far to their correction, that the prison- 
keepers became more cautious, and abstained from the 
infliction of unlawful cruelties. But the very prisons 
themselves were so constructed as to be instruments 
of mental and physical torture to their inmates, and 
so continued until the time of Howard. At that very 
period the prisons of the Dutch (shame to our English 
ancestors !) far excelled theirs in order, cleanliness, 
and industry, and were nearly assimilated in these 
respects to the best establishments of modern times. 
But the pre-eminent evil of the English provision for 
the care of prisoners, even to so late a period as 
the year 1859, was the promiscuous mingling of cul- 
prits, great and small. The corrupting influence of 
such a system can hardly be overstated. The most 
atrocious and hardened criminals, with such facilities, 
impart their own measure and type of iniquity to 
novices in vice, so that the higher measure of wicked- 
ness is often reached by these latter almost at a bound. 

Even now, in most countries, while the supreme 
authority has some oversight, and, at will, exercises 
some restraining power upon the inferior officers of 
justice, so that they are liable to be checked in the 
pursuit of any arbitrary or vindictive courses, yet there 



92 PRISON ECONOMY. 

is no hand to lay restraint upon the chief executive 
himself, and to protect the prisoner against his caprices 
or mistakes. England and the United States possess 
the habeas corpus act. These are the only countries 
in which is any power, adequate to the object, that can 
interpose between the ruler and the alleged culprit and 
open the prison doors. 

These are steps in the way of righteous dealing 
towards those who have fallen under the condemna- 
tion of the law, which do not arrest the course of 
justice, but only secure its equal administration. They 
are tokens of a higher civilization, and of a Christianity 
which has leavened even the civil economy of the 
state. 

The reformation of the prisoner is now, in enlight- 
ened communities, no less an object of incarceration 
than is punishment : so that, in great measure, reforma- 
tories and prisons are kindred institutions. The diffi- 
cult problem which we are now most concerned to 
solve is, how to maintain the condign severity of the 
law, and yet to encourage the culprit to attempt, with 
a hopeful spirit, a new and more honorable mode of 
life. He must never be suffered to forget that he is 
under the rebuke of society for his crime. To his pro- 
clivities for self-indulgence and evil company, the prison 
should in no wise give indulgence. Restraint must be 
a present consciousness all the time. Constraint to meet 
reasonable exactions of work, and of punctuality and 
obedience to rule, must be as certainly a part of his 
daily regimen as the supply of his frugal and homely 
meals. And yet, in the exercise of this quiet strictness 
and severity, there should be always in the administra- 



PRISON ECONOMY. 93 

tion the spontaneous evidences of humanity, and, in the 
apprehension of the culprit, the sense that simple 
justice is dealt out to him. Facilities for improvement 
must be given ; commendation on duties well per- 
formed kindly bestowed ; and the possibilities of a 
better life, in after years, suggested and put within the 
reach of hope. No merely hireling functionary is fit 
to have the charge of imprisoned culprits. The work 
of a warden in a penitentiary can be well done only by 
one who believes in the susceptibilities of manhood, 
even when brought to the deepest abasement, and who 
aspires to make an effort to lift it up and help its 
restoration. He must not be of hasty temper or 
easily discouraged, but must pursue his undertaking 
with a quenchless zeal and perform his work in the 
same spirit of sacrifice with which a missionary of 
religion leaves his country and gives his life to the re- 
claiming of men groping in the darkness and degrada- 
tion of heathenism. 

To secure this manner and spirit of administration 
the most vigilant oversight is required. Very much of 
what transpires in the various public institutions of our 
country is secure enough from actual abuse by the 
publicity of their proceedings. Times of free visita- 
tion are appointed, at which whosoever will may pass 
through them and inspect their arrangements. And 
this public supervision, supplemented by the official 
inspection of their board of managers, affords an ordi- 
narily effective mode of bringing to light any grievous 
wrongs that are practiced upon their inmates. But the 
walls of prisons are as effectual in keeping critics out 
as in keeping culprits in. It is especially desirable that 



94 PRISON ECONOMY. 

impartial men, holding office not for fee or reward, but 
from motives of philanthropy alone, appointed by an 
authority which shall possess the highest confidence for 
its wisdom and its independence, should be invested 
with powers of oversight and direction, enabling them 
to look into the inner prisons and the whole economy of 
treatment and the animus with which it is conducted. 

In his first report, after the adoption of our Pennsyl- 
vania system of separate imprisonment, the chief offi- 
cer having oversight of such matters in England 
wrote : — " I find the result at present to be not only the 
entire suppression of the corrupt and demoralizing 
effects of indiscriminate association, but a peculiar 
seriousness of demeanor is produced by separate con- 
finement, which, except in a few instances, I never wit- 
nessed before." 

Isolated and temporary experiments of the solitary 
system had been attempted in Great Britain before ; as 
in the Gloucester Penitentiary, near the close of the 
eighteenth century, and afterwards, in a modified shape, 
in the Bridewell of Glasgow. 

In 1786, through the influence of the Society of 
Friends, the solitary system was distinctly developed 
in the management of the prison in Philadelphia. All 
punishments of a corporal nature, such as branding 
and the lash, were at the same time abolished. Altera- 
tions were made in the Walnut Street Prison with re- 
ference to this new regime. Thirty cells were set 
apart for separate confinement. Continuous solitude, 
without labor, books, or manual occupation of any sort, 
was at first enforced. And the same system was 
adopted, in some degree, by Maryland, Massachusetts, 



PRISON ECONOMY. 95 

Maine, New Jersey, and Virginia. But perpetual soli- 
tude was found to be unendurable, unless some em- 
ployment might be given. A culprit, having small 
resources of knowledge, and, therefore, meagre mate- 
rial for thought, shut up to brood only upon his folly 
and crime and punishment, will, if of passionate tem- 
perament, be driven to insanity, and, if of sluggish 
mould, will sink into idiocy. Labor interrupts and 
mitigates the anguish of remembered guilt and its 
tribulation. The hands can do nothing unless the 
mind be more or less engaged in directing their move- 
ments, and any diversion of the thoughts from one 
perpetual, painful subject of reflection, is an unspeak- 
able relief. It is the law of our intellectual, as it is of 
our physical, nature, that if some faculties be withheld 
from exercise, others are intensified into abnormal 
power and activity. As, if the eyes be blinded, the 
hearing becomes more acute; so, if the operative func- 
tions of the mind be repressed, the reflective action is 
excessively and morbidly increased. He who cannot 
apply his thoughts to any matter of present interest, 
recoils upon the past with a fearful energy of memory, 
of which men in their natural freedom of observation 
and action are incapable. The American experiment, 
which, separating prisoners from one another, modified 
the severity of such solitude by requiring them to 
labor, gave the first demonstration of the value of 
those two elements in prison discipline. 

But labor is advantageous not only in that it makes 
solitary confinement endurable, but that it teaches, what 
most criminals have never learned, the duty of service. 
41 Idleness is the parent of vice." A little investigation 



9^ PRISON ECONOMY. 

would convince any one that in nearly every instance 
the crimes which consign men to prison have been com- 
mitted by those who have never acquired habits of 
industry, — who have either obtained a precarious liveli- 
hood by leaning on others for support or by occasional 
spasms of effort to work, or have lazily, with perpetual 
reluctance, and with evasion of duty whenever possible, 
maintained a sham occupation. For such men, espe- 
cially if they reach prison (the goal of crime) early in 
life, steady, compulsory labor is a most wholesome dis- 
cipline. Industry becomes thus a necessity of their 
situation, both because irresistible authority exacts it of 
them, and because, in solitude, their own comfort of 
mind requires it. It is the nearest approach they have 
to positive pleasure, and so it grows to be agreeable, 
until a diligence which began under constraint at length 
ripens into a habit. The criminal who, paying the pen- 
alty of a past offense, gains meanwhile this item of 
personal training, for the lack of which he became a 
criminal, returns to the world, when his sentence of in- 
carceration is fulfilled, a wiser and a better man, imbued 
with such new ideas of life that, through industry, he 
will escape relapse into crimes. But prison labor, to 
be beneficial in its effect upon the prisoner, must be 
productive. The crank and the tread-mill only weary 
the body and vex the spirit. Where a particle of man- 
hood remains, the soul revolts at a mere muscular oc- 
cupation, which gives no exercise to the understanding, 
and might as well be done by an ox or an ass. These 
inflictions are merely penal. Dr. Wines reports of a 
recent visit to the city prison of London, where as 
many as seven or eight hundred of the inmates were 



PRISON ECONOMY. 97 

found " exercising " on the tread-wheel, which is the 
largest in the world : — " The governor of the prison 
testifies to the bad effects of this kind of prison labor." 
They humble the transgressor, indeed, but they destroy 
his self-respect. They may serve to make the prison 
odious, and thus operate to make the viciously-inclined 
more careful to avoid it, but they do him no good — 
rather positive harm, when once he is lodged in prison 
as a culprit. 

The system of separate imprisonment with useful 
labor, avoids alike the danger of contamination by the 
intercourse of the bad with the worse, and the danger 
of insanity or imbecility when the guilty are kept idle 
and alone. Under the old common-jail arrangement 
the novice in crime was almost sure to go forth, when 
discharged, an adept. The leisure allowed in the 
prison-yards, and in the rooms where culprits were 
herded together, was employed in recounting past ex- 
ploits in crime and hair-breadth escapes, and in plan- 
ning future acts of villainy ; so that, not infrequently, 
men were graduated from these schools of vice with a 
programme of further depredations upon society care- 
fully prepared and determined on. 

To preclude communication between prisoners is the 
paramount idea of the separate system. It does not 
contemplate the exclusion of ministers of religion ac- 
cording to the denominational preferences of those in 
confinement ; they may come to the wretched exile as 
often as his spiritual wants require. It does not hin- 
der the access of other conscientious persons whom it 
may be agreeable and edifying for them to see. In 
some places it is not thought to impair the efficacy of 



98 PRISON ECONOMY. 

this system to allow the prisoners to meet for worship 
and instruction. In the Western Penitentiary of this 
State, under a recent law, prisoners come together for 
labor, restricted, however, from all conversation with 
one another. 

This absolute prevention of all intercourse between 
the vicious, and exclusion of all outside visitors except 
those who come to lead them to repentance and a 
better life, must add great moral force to the influences 
of religious truth with which they are approached. 
The privacy of these errands of mercy gives the 
consciously guilty encouragement to unburden his 
heart, and to indulge and express feelings of contri- 
tion, without the danger of being scoffed at for his 
weakness. If there be any tender memories, they are 
likely to be awakened and made impressive and profit- 
able under such circumstances. And besides, undis- 
tracted by other objects of interest and topics of 
conversation, the mind of a prisoner, judiciously guided 
by conscientious advisers and concentrated upon the 
recovery of a lost relation of amity with God and man, 
will most surely reach wise and abiding conclusions. 

The dietary arrangements of a prison may be made 
to promote its reformatory influences. A large pro- 
portion of those who are incarcerated as criminals have 
before imprisonment led dissolute lives. Addicted to 
intoxicating drinks, their food has been, for the most 
part, poor and innutritious and taken at irregular times. 
Surfeited occasionally with inordinate quantities of 
hearty food, and then almost starved by its meagreness 
and infrequency, they become worn and sickly, and 
ordinarily improve in bodily condition after they are 



PRISON ECONOMY. 99 

put in durance. This improvement results partially 
from the uniformity of material of their food, and of 
the times at which they receive it. It is attributable, 
also, in some degree, to the constrained inactivity of 
their lives. And so it often happens that improved in 
health prisoners come out at the expiration of their 
sentence presenting an appearance not only in ludicrous 
contrast with that which they wore when taken into 
custody, but more indicative of good living than the 
aspect of honest laborers, who have earned, at liberty, 
the means of their daily subsistence. A difference so 
marked ought not to appear, lest poverty be tempted 
to crime by the seemingly better fare of those who 
have been convicted of it. Culprits should not be too 
well fed. They are usually persons in whom the ani- 
mal nature is predominant, and out of that fact their 
vices have grown. Repletion of food is often attended 
with a mental indifference to other things, and a pride 
and haughtiness of spirit unfavorable to moral im- 
provement. Nor, on the other hand, should the prison 
be used as a place of physical torture by the withhold- 
ing of necessary food. It is a nice point to be fixed 
upon, and it should be determined after the most 
careful observation, and the exercise of the highest 
professional skill. What is the lowest quantity of 
plain food which will preserve a human being, in his 
normal condition, is the law of subsistence which should 
find place in prison economy. A certain measure of 
abstinence is not unfavorable to the best dicipline of 
the spirit. 

Truth is better apprehended when the body has not 
been satiated with overmuch food ; the carnal passions 



IOO PRISON ECONOMY. 

are less likely to predominate. Such experience is a 
hint for the management of those who, by the indul- 
gence of wicked propensities, have become dangerous 
to the community, and are in its hands for chastise- 
ment and reform. The regimen of their subsistence 
should be such, that without detriment to the physical 
constitution, their whole nature should be kept in the 
best condition for receiving and appropriating what- 
ever good and reformatory influences may be brought 
to bear upon them. Especially should there be avoid- 
ance of such dietary profusion as could by any possi- 
bility make the prison a place of chosen refuge for 
the idle and thriftless drones of society. 



BENEVOLENCE IN PUNISHMENT AND IN PRO- 
VISION FOR THE POOR. 

Society needs to realize more sensibly than it now 
does that benevolence, not only towards the stricken 
and unfortunate, but towards the vicious who fall into 
its custody, is both its duty and its interest. And they 
who serve society as custodians of these classes need 
still more to feel it and to practice it in the administra- 
tion of their trusts. The perfunctory and heartless 
care of human beings, whether in asylums or prisons, 
is a deprivation of that ameliorating influence of sym- 
pathy which is at once the right of the persons in ward, 
and the interest of the community which has them to 
provide for. 



PRISON ECONOMY. IOI 

In suggesting a benevolent administration of justice 
even to convicted criminals, we would not be under- 
stood as favoring that weak lenity which would deprive 
discipline of all its punitive power. The hope of 
evading arrest, and, if arrested, of escaping conviction ; 
the relief from wearisome labor, and the certainty of 
good fare in prison, the chances of having the term of 
incarceration shortened by executive clemency, strip 
our penal code of almost all its terrors. Through one 
or more of these loopholes the minions of vice take 
assurance that they shall escape from the full measure 
of punishment which the law decrees, and so they 
venture on crime with the chances, as they think, in 
their favor. Certainly if condign punishment would 
be a proximate preventive of crime, uninviting but 
wholesome food, labor enough to produce daily fatigue, 
strict but perfectly humane treatment, should be the 
experience of every convict. In dealing with crime, 
the public should aim, not only at its own protection 
by placing the guilty under restraint, but also at the 
moral reformation of the offender, if for no other 
reason, for this, that when released he may be of some 
service to society by his influence and his industry, 
rather than infect it with the pestilence of his vices and 
weaken it by his depredations, intensified by hatred and 
vindictiveness engendered through what he conceives 
to be the despotism of his restraining imprisonment. 

The family relation is the natural one, and should be 
the type of those larger communities which result from 
the commercial habits of mankind. The state is a 
great family, and the animus of its administration 
should accord with that idea. The father, in no stage 



102 PRISON ECONOMY. 

of his child's waywardness and alienation, may forget 
his parental bonds. He deals most wisely with a rec- 
reant child who, not sparing the rod of chastisement, 
makes his offspring to feel, at every stroke, that he is 
smarting, not under the malignant vengeance of out- 
raged power, but under the effort of aggrieved love to 
enforce the conviction that the way of the transgressor 
is hard, and to bring back the offender to duty and 
reconciliation. 

No one, put in durance by the strong hand of society, 
unless, perhaps, he has committed that extreme offense 
by which the sentence of death is incurred, should be 
made to esteem himself an utter and hopeless outcast, 
whom all men are conspiring to hunt down. When it 
appears that nobody else has a vestige of hope that a 
man may be reclaimed, he, himself, loses all hope and 
abandons all effort of amendment. What is wanted in 
prison discipline is, not a mawkish tenderness, not a 
weak consideration for prisoners, as if they were mere 
unfortunates ; but a gracious humanity which recog- 
nizes manhood as still existent in the vilest culprit, and 
would fain do something to bring it out of degrading 
bondage, and restore it to supremacy. The manual of 
our religious faith teaches, that while the Supreme per- 
mits a transgressor to live, He continues to him the 
power and the opportunity to return and forsake his 
evil ways. 

But if it be both just and politic to deal even with 
criminals in a humane and merciful spirit, how much 
rather should they be stimulated with manifestations of 
sympathy and encouragement to effort, who have been 
disabled, by the visitation of God, from earning their 



PRISON ECONOMY. 103 

own living, and are unwillingly forced upon the com- 
munity for maintenance. We now speak of the worthy 
paupers, not the professional who oscillate between 
the county jail and the county almshouse, infected with 
a double degradation. We may concede that the care- 
less lenity which so generally indulges these consuming 
lazzaroni, with abundant provision and light labor, is to 
be deprecated, offering, as it does, a premium for idle- 
ness and vice. If such be proper subjects for public 
maintenance, they should be sternly taught, that " if 
they will not work, neither shall they eat." 

The unfortunate and the guilty are all alike integral 
parts of the community. Whatever dejects them, en- 
feebles it. The effective force of society is made up of 
the power of its individual members, and the confi- 
dence of each in all, is one of the elements of that 
power. The deterioration of any member of the com- 
munity, even though he be a pauper or criminal, to a 
certain extent lowers the moral standard of the whole. 
A modern English writer says : — " It is not to be sup- 
posed that the criminal population is a creation apart. 
No, it springs from, it is a part of, the community ; it is 
composed of the weaker and more excitable part of 
every class. 

"The weak, the careless, the vicious of every class 
find themselves gradually and steadily crushed out of 
the conflict for that wealth, which every effort made 
around them by men of higher capacities than their 
own, tends to exalt their imagination, while it removes 
them from its legitimate acquisition. The appetite for 
wealth, which is a disease even among the educated 
and high-toned of a nation, becomes a foul leprosy in 



104 PRISON ECONOMY. 

that portion of it, in whom weakness of intellect and 
strength of passions have not found a compensating 
control in sound education and early training." 

Pauperism, especially, requires to be lifted out of the 
downward steeps of hopelessness. Our self-respect is 
largely dependent on our consciousness that others 
respect us, and loss of self-respect almost certainly 
leads its desolate victim to the commission of crime. 
In all almshouses, every inmate should be required to 
exert his or her ability to labor, however feeble it be, 
and to that end, diversities of work should be furnished 
adapted to their individual strength and skill. And 
this should be exacted, not as a burden or penalty, 
whose tendency would be still further to crush out the 
manliness of its victim, but as a stimulus to self-reliance 
and a proof that the power of self-maintenance may be 
regained. 

This we submit as one method by which the state, 
the embodiment and executive power of society, may 
characterize its administration of those departments in 
the great household, where the transgressing, the in- 
efficient, and the unfortunate members are provided for, 
under rules of the firmest discipline, but by a generous 
and wholesome benevolence. And through an agency 
of its own charged with this mission, and imbued with 
a right spirit, it is believed that much may be done to 
repress evil, alleviate misery, and promote future im- 
provement in those restraining methods and influences 
which are now in practice. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 05 

CRIME AND PRISON ECONOMY. 

It is a trite maxim, that the prevention of evil is bet- 
ter than its cure ; and nowhere is the maxim more true 
than in relation to crime. To destroy its seeds or hin- 
der their germination — to dry up its sources or turn 
their flow into some harmless or useful direction — to 
eradicate or neutralize its causes — is better than all 
efforts at its repression or even its reform. It is easier, 
as well as better, to throw off the incipient fever than 
to stay its full-grown progress. It is easier and wiser 
to guard against or extinguish the first kindling of the 
fire than to stem the sweeping conflagration. Both 
processes, the preventive and the remedial, will always 
be needed; for neither disease nor conflagration nor 
crime will ever be utterly abolished among men; but 
each process should be applied in its proper place and 
in its due proportion. In the former reports of this 
board, therefore, attention has already been most earn- 
estly called to the unspeakable importance of adopting 
effectual measures for securing the universal education 
of the young in learning, industry, and good morals; 
for hindering truancy and vagrancy, idleness and 
intemperance, and for furnishing the destitute poor 
with such shelter and support as may preserve them 
from either miserably perishing or preying upon the 
peace and property of society, as well as giving occa- 
sion to still greater multitudes of idle vagabonds to 
impose upon its charity. Such preventive measures 
cannot be too urgently pressed and pushed forward. 
They are the most humane, the most beneficent, the 
most effective, and, in the end, they will prove the 



106 PRISON ECONOMY. 

cheapest. Still, measures of repression and reform, 
to which it is now proposed to invite attention, will 
always be necessary; and they will continue to tax the 
highest wisdom of the legislature. Indeed, no subject 
connected with the science of legislation or of public 
economy possesses a deeper interest than this. After 
due preventive enactments, no other has a more 
momentous bearing upon the welfare and progress of 
society. No other demands profounder consideration 
or more patient inquiry, as a condition of wise and 
beneficent legislation. Beneficent legislation, we say 
advisedly and purposely; for humanity and charity are 
concerned in it as well as policy and wisdom ; or, rather, 
in this case, they are both policy and wisdom. 

Not that the inspection and examination, which this 
board has made, of the penal and reformatory institu- 
tions of the Commonwealth, even from the special point 
of view suggested by its very title, have tainted the 
minds of its members with any mawkish sentimental- 
ism over "the poor, suffering" criminal, or inspired 
them with any frenzy of philanthropy, or with any 
sympathy for the imprisoned convict as a mere "victim 
of misfortune." Far from it. We look upon crime 
with horror and detestation, and we regard the crimi- 
nal as richly deserving punishment; — often severe, 
grievous punishment, — punishment sometimes greater 
than man can inflict. But all this does not hinder that 
he should be an object of humane, kindly, and be- 
neficent regard. In wrath, mercy may be remem- 
bered by man as well as by his Maker; by the state as 
well as by the individual. The criminal is still a man. 
He is a criminal and must be punished, ought to be 



PRISON ECONOMY. 107 

punished; he is a man and must be treated, must be 
punished, as a man. 

This board does not forget that it is the creature, the 
agent, the representative of the legislature; and that it 
has no proper functions or aims which lie beyond and 
outside of the functions and aims of the legislature. 
Its business is to represent the true character and spirit 
of the legislature, and no more. But it rejoices to 
remember that it has been constituted and designated 
to represent that character and spirit in their most 
generous, their humane, and benevolent aspect. Such 
an aspect it is firmly believed they have and, of right, 
ought to have. That such an aspect of character and 
spirit is not alien to its functions the legislature has 
formally acknowledged and declared in the very act of 
creating the board itself. Let it not be supposed that 
it is intended to push the inference too far. This 
board fully recognizes the fact that the state is not a 
mere benevolent association, or the legislature a phi- 
lanthropic club; that the state looks with a calm, large 
view at general results and the common weal, rather 
than with a sentimental absorption at the. relief of par- 
ticular cases of hardship and suffering; looks at politi- 
cal interests rather than at moral and religious ends; 
that the public good is the fundamental condition and 
aim of all legislation; and, particularly, that punish- 
ments are inflicted upon criminals in order to prevent 
the further commission of crime by others as well as by 
themselves. But these general doctrines are some- 
times misunderstood and misapplied ; are overstretched 
on their exclusive or negative side, and in their anti- 
thesis to views supposed to be conflicting; or are 



108 PRISON ECONOMY. 

urged in a manner quite too bold and peremptory. It 
may not be irrelevant, therefore, in introducing the 
general subject which has been proposed, to premise a 
brief preliminary consideration of what is meant by the 
general good as a principle of legislation. 

What does this principle involve, and what does it 
exclude, as considerations proper or improper to be 
taken account of in making laws ? 

Here the broad statement may be ventured, that a 
regard for popular intelligence and virtue, that senti- 
ments of justice and honor, of humanity and charity, 
are proper motives for legislators, and their promotion 
and prevalence in the community proper objects of 
legislation, as well as the protection or advancement 
of the common physical well-being, or the increase of 
the pecuniary wealth or resources of the state; they 
are included under the idea of promoting the general 
welfare. 

In regard to intelligence and virtue, most Christian 
states have, in their legislation, practically acknowledged 
the truth of the statement. Our own State in partic- 
ular has emphatically acknowledged it in providing the 
elements of instruction for all, and in encouraging and 
fostering the higher institutions of science and learn- 
ing, as well as those for the moral and religious train- 
ing of the community. 

The claims of justice, too, are generally admitted in 
practice. It is admitted that the state may not commit 
injustice herself, — however much it might seem to pro- 
mote the public good, — and that it is a principal part 
of her office to administer justice between man and 
man, to redress wrongs and to prevent injuries. This 



PRISON ECONOMY. 109 

is admitted to be involved in the idea of promoting the 
general welfare; and, if so, surely a nice sense of honor 
and keen sentiments of justice cannot be unfitting mo- 
tives to sway the mind of a legislator ; or, to secure 
their prevalence in the community, an improper object 
of legislation. 

Thus far there is no considerable dispute. The 
great conflict occurs at another point. It seems to be 
very generally thought and assumed that at all events 
the sentiments of humanity and charity have nothing 
to do with statesmanship and legislation ; that here the 
legislator is bound to look directly, strictly, and exclu- 
sively at the public interest. But if the helpless poor, 
the deaf, the blind, the idiotic, the decrepit, were left to 
perish, and if the insane were forthwith put to death, 
society might be relieved of a great burden, and its 
physical well-being greatly improved. Only humanity 
and charity forbid. And all civilized and Christian 
states have in their legislation recognized the authority 
of these sentiments; have recognized their exercise 
and prevalence in these relations as being of more im- 
portance to the general welfare than mere dollars and 
cents. How is it possible, then, that those who act for 
the state in making its laws should find it unfitting to 
be themselves influenced by the same sentiments and 
motives in framing their enactments ? 

In like manner, in the treatment of criminals, it is 
believed and maintained that regard should be had to 
the claims of humanity, to the good and reformation 
of the offender, as well as to the claims of justice or to 
the security of the state, in the removal of burdens or 
the deterring of men from the commission of crime. 



1 I PRISON E CONOMY. 

Otherwise, all criminals of whatever age, under what- 
ever circumstances, guilty of crimes of whatever de- 
gree, might upon conviction be straightway put to 
death. If the legislator is to look simply with a cold- 
blooded regard to the public interest, why should they 
not be ? If it should be thought that public justice, or 
the public good, in any point of view, forbid it, because 
they require a gradation of punishments according to 
the enormity of offenses, that requisition might be met 
by marking the greater crime with the more excruci- 
ating mode of execution, or by the infliction of various 
degrees of preliminary torture. Thus society would 
be summarily relieved of an oppressive burden of ex- 
pense, and men would most effectually be deterred 
from the commission of crime, so far as severity of 
punishment could deter them. But not the spirit of 
Christianity alone, the voice of humanity and the 
genius of civilization, cry out against the Draconian 
code. Such a society, a society with such a code, a 
society thus discarding all the sentiments of humanity, 
would be a society of savages. And shall the customs 
of savages furnish the purest illustration of the high- 
est ideal of human legislation, of a wise and single- 
minded aim at the public good '? 

It may perhaps be suggested that in a civilized com- 
munity such a code would, in fact, encourage instead 
of preventing crime, and thus defeat its own object and 
operate against the general good ; because, with such 
a code, judges and juries would not convict or sentence 
men guilty of crimes, especially in the case of minor 
offenses, and thus the great mass of evil-doers would 
actually escape punishment altogether. If this sug- 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 1 1 

gestion is made, it is cheerfully and frankly admitted ; 
but, in the same breath, the whole point here con- 
tended for is admitted also ; for it is thus admitted that 
legislators, in their penal enactments, cannot safely 
ignore the sentiments of humanity and charity ; they 
cannot safely so look at the public good as to leave 
these sentiments altogether out of account as motives 
in shaping their action. 

Nor can the force of this argument be parried by 
saying that these sentiments must, indeed, be recog- 
nized by legislators as existing facts in the community, 
but not as proper motives in their own minds ; that, 
rather, they are to be regarded as unfortunate external 
impediments which they are compelled to take account 
of, while they seek, as directly as possible, and in spite 
of these hindrances, to reach their proper end — the 
general interest of the state. This implies that, from 
a legislative point of view, it would be desirable that 
all such sentiments should be abolished in the com- 
munity, and thus a great impediment removed from 
the direct path to the accomplishment of the proper 
purpose of legislation, — in short, that the savage is 
superior to the civilized state. But this is too absurd 
to be openly maintained for a moment. No Rousseau 
can longer be found ingenious and hardy enough to 
defend the thesis. Rather, it is unquestionably in the 
highest degree desirable, that sentiments of humanity 
and charity should pervade the community; their preva- 
lence is a most important condition and element of 
the general welfare. If it is the duty of legislators not 
to be influenced by these sentiments, it is equally the 
duty of judges and juries not to be influenced by 



1 1 2 PRISON ECONOMY. 

them ; and still more emphatically is it their duty, if it 
is made and declared such by positive law. Are the 
oaths of judges and jurymen less binding than those 
of legislators ? And if not, why is it to be assumed 
that the former are more likely to disregard the solem- 
nity of their oaths than the latter ? Are legislators the 
only honest and trustworthy part of the community ? 
But why are legislators called upon to abdicate their 
humanity, while judges and jurymen are allowed to 
retain it? If this " humanity" is a weakness and a 
vice, both in the makers and the administrators of 
public law, would not consistency require that, while 
seeking to abolish it in one department, we should aim 
at its abolition in all other departments, instead of yield- 
ing to it in any ? The fact is, this ignoring of humanity 
by statesmen is, after all, a lesson not so easily learned 
or practiced. Men cannot easily make themselves 
mere abstractions or mere legislative machines : they 
will still be men. And if men are to govern men, the 
governors must not only retain their own humanity, 
but must also recognize the manhood of those whom 
they govern. 

Nor does the principle here contended for rest on 
merely theoretic grounds; it is no matter of mere specu- 
lative sentimentalism ; it has been practically confirmed 
by actual legislation. The claims not only of justice, 
but of civilization and humanity have been distinctly 
recognized by the modern state — in the abolition of all 
forms of torture and of ignominious inflictions for 
crimes; in arranging a due gradation of punishment; in 
consulting for the comfort and health of prisoners, by 
providing for them warmth, ventilation, and wholesome 



PRISON E CO NO MY. 1 1 3 

diet, and in establishing reformatory institutions for 
juvenile offenders, as well as in providing or aiding 
from the common treasury hospitals and asylums for 
the poor, for the blind, for deaf mutes, for the aged, 
the feeble-minded, the insane, and the inebriate. As a 
matter of fact, and to a large extent, the Christian state 
has adopted, in her legislation, the principle of hu- 
manity and charity, instead of unadulterated social 
selfishness. 

The simple question now is, will the state repudiate 
her own practical principles out of deference to an ex- 
treme, purely speculative, and savage doctrine of the 
" public good ;" or, retaining them, will she carry them 
out in a thorough and consistent manner ? 

In the progress of Roman civilization, it came to be 
felt that a Roman citizen, however criminal, was a per- 
son too sacred for scourging or crucifixion ; these were 
punishments reserved for slaves. In modern civiliza- 
tion, till quite too late, have lingered the pillory and 
the rack and bloody whipping-posts, the mutilations of 
noses and eyes and ears and hands, the slow pressing 
to death of recusants and the cutting out of the hearts 
of traitors, while the ingenuities of inquisitorial torture 
and burning at the stake have been reserved for the 
holiday amusement of religious bigotry. That bigotry, 
alas, is not quite extinct, but in general it has learned 
to be content with less horrible modes of gratifica- 
tion. Some remnants and relics of those other cruel 
and ignominious inflictions still disgrace the statute- 
books and judicial usages of some Christian states ; 
but even when they were in full operation, under the 
brutal codes of feudal institutions, they were usually 



114 PRISON ECONOMY. 

accompanied with what was at once an insult to hu- 
manity and an acknowledgment of its claims, in the 
shape of an exemption from them in favor of the mem- 
bers of the governing aristocracy. Modern civilization 
has, for the most part, entirely outlived them. With 
us, especially, they are quite obsolete. We have no 
slaves, on the one hand, and no aristocratic exemp- 
tions on the other. Every American citizen is, as 
such, a person as sacred and respectable as the Roman 
citizen of ante-Christian, or the feudal baron of mediae- 
val, times ; and American laws will not discriminate 
against the persons of those who come to us as guests 
or as prospective citizens. In short, it has been found 
that contempt and contumelious treatment of our fel- 
low-men is not good, either for them or for us ; that the 
spirit of wanton and vindictive cruelty cannot promote 
the general good and happiness of society, and, least 
of all, when organized, sanctioned, and executed by the 
authority of the state, as an act of the whole body 
politic ; that the state cannot afford, by the ignomini- 
ous degradation of humanity, even in the person of 
the grossest criminal, or by the infliction of any pun- 
ishment whatever for the mere purpose of inflicting 
pain or suffering on the offender, to encourage or 
sanction the spirit of inhumanity or cruelty in the 
community. A sacred regard for human kind, or 
respect for the dignity of man as man, a prevalent 
spirit of forbearance and kindness, and a prevailing 
horror of cruelty, are better safeguards of personal 
rights and the public good than all the tortures and 
scourgings and pillories and bloody mutilations that 
ever were invented. 



PRISON E CONOMY. 1 1 5 

Men will often, if not always, best promote their pri- 
vate interest, not by a course of pure selfishness, not 
by making that interest the direct and exclusive end of 
all their plans and conduct, but by cherishing and act- 
ing upon the sentiments of justice, humanity, and 
charity. If a farmer, a merchant, or a manufacturer, 
having a number of. men in his employ, would have 
them serve him most heartily, faithfully, and efficiently, 
he must show that he takes a cordial interest in them 
and in their welfare ; they must be made to believe 
that he has such an interest ; and the best, the only 
honest, if not the only possible way to make them be- 
lieve it, is, actually to have it and cultivate it. In like 
manner individuals, if not legislators, will often best 
promote the public good, not by seeking it as the di- 
rect and absolute end, but by consciously aiming at the 
ends of justice and charity, of humanity and civiliza- 
tion, of morality and religion. And even legislators 
will wisely aim at these ends so far as the public good 
reqtiires, and seek the public good only in such ways as 
these higher ends permit. The public good is too closely 
interwoven with those ends to be separated from them, 
either in fact or in purpose, even by the most abstract 
and imperturbable legislative coolness. 

For example, whatever a crude idea of the public 
good might seem to require or sanction to the con- 
trary, the sentiments and the ends of humanity and 
equity evidently require a gradation of penalties accord- 
ing to the enormity of offenses. In the end, the public 
good requires it too, and so, as already said, all civilized 
legislation has practically recognized the principle. 
For if the theft of a dime were visited with the 



1 1 6 PRISON ECONOMY. 

same punishment as the commission of murder — even 
though that punishment were death — the petty theft 
might indeed come to be regarded with greater horror, 
but the crime of murder would certainly be most 
perilously cheapened. For this the highest punish- 
ment should be reserved ; on this the extreme penalty 
should be inflicted, and the infliction of the extreme 
penalty in this case is demanded quite as much by the 
natural sentiments of humanity as by any regard to the 
public welfare. Yet even this extreme penalty should 
be executed, not with any adjuncts of needless ignominy 
or cruelty, not in malignity or vindictiveness, but in as 
mild a form as possible, and with every token of re- 
luctance, of sympathy and humane regard. If the 
pricipal end of all punishment should be the preven- 
tion of crime and the restraint of criminals, capital 
punishment should remain to deter men by the highest 
penalty from the greatest of crimes, and to restrain the 
criminal absolutely, i. e., to remove him, once for all, 
beyond the possibility of repeating his offense. While, 
then, the sentiments of humanity and charity undoubt- 
edly require that the infliction of capital punishment 
should be reduced to a minimum, the same sentiments 
of humanity and charity, with a due regard to the 
demands of justice and the welfare of society, require 
that it should be retained at the apex of any system 
of penal jurisprudence. But it is no part of our pres- 
ent purpose to discuss the right or the expediency of 
capital punishment. We only desire to disavow any 
advocacy of its abolition, and to protest that a consist- 
ent regard to the claims of humanity and charity, which 
we do advocate, does not require its abolition, but just 



PRISON ECONOMY. , 1 17 

the contrary. The fact that the reformation of the 
offender ceases to be an object of this extreme punish- 
ment, does not at all hinder that it should be a proper 
and most important end to be sought in all those cases 
and modes of punishment in which there are room and 
opportunity for seeking it. A due regard for the 
public good will itself make the distinction in these 
cases. The public good may not require the reforma- 
tion of the criminal who is once for all put out of the 
world, and yet it may imperatively require that refor- 
mation in the case of those who, after their term of 
punishment is fulfilled, are to be restored to the bosom 
of society. 

Take another example on the other side. Laws en- 
forcing by penalties the duties of inward and private 
morality, or the profession and practice of true religion, 
are not to be enacted by the state, because, on the 
whole, they would subvert instead of promoting the 
highest good ; and that, although the prevalence of the 
strictest personal morality and conscientiousness, and 
the profession and practice of the true religion, must be 
in the highest degree beneficial to the whole commu- 
nity, and the prevalence of their opposites the greatest 
of public calamities. So, too, with sumptuary laws ; 
although the prevalence of temperance, frugality, and 
economy cannot fail to be most desirable and salutary, 
yet the state cannot undertake to enforce them by le- 
gal penalties without occasioning more harm than 
good. Thus the ends of the public good on one hand, 
and the ends of humanity, charity, morality, and justice 
on the other, are co-ordinate motives for the states- 
man, and neither can be safely followed to the entire 



1 1 8 PRISON ECONOMY. 

disregard of the others. Such a following of the public 
good would often fail to reach it ; and in legislation 
such a pursuit of the ends of humanity or morality 
would often be the surest way of missing them. By the 
wise statesman the two must be combined in one view. 

As the board are about to suggest certain changes 
and reforms in the prison economy of the Common- 
wealth, they have ventured upon these preliminary 
statements in order to " define their position," to place 
in front the principles upon which they proceed, and to 
forestall the too-prevalent objection that all such 
schemes of prison reform are the mere dreams of a 
very respectable but unstatesmanlike philanthropy, of 
an amiable but ignorant and unpractical sentimental- 
ism ; having no basis in the public weal, and undeserv- 
ing the attention of enlightened legislators. These 
preliminary statements have been entered upon, not to 
instruct the legislature, but to explain ourselves. We 
shall ask for no reform which cannot be shown to be 
demanded by the public good, taken in any large and 
statesmanlike sense ; but we shall not hesitate to urge 
in support of reforms so demanded all the motives 
of justice and morality, of humanity and civilization. 

We may as well make up our minds that great re- 
forms will be made in this department of our legisla- 
tion and public policy. The movements in this direc- 
tion, which have been going on in the civilized world 
during the last twenty years or more, and which have 
been annually increasing in vigor and volume, show 
beyond mistake that such must eventually be the re- 
sult. In former times Pennsylvania took the lead in 
prison reforms and improvements; and much real 



PRISON E CONOMY. 1 1 Q 

/ y 

progress was made. Since then she has been too 
much disposed to rest upon her early laurels, while 
vastly more yet remains to be done. The question is, 
will she, in the further progress of this great work, fol- 
low up in the rear or take the lead ? Will she allow 
Russia and Turkey to get the start of her, or will she 
again give her lessons of example to all western as 
well as eastern Europe ? 

I. THE REFORMATORY USE OF IMPRISONMENT. 

That the protection of society or the prevention of 
crime, in a large sense, is the whole object of imprison- 
ment, is freely admitted. That it should aim at the 
exemplary punishment of crime, and the restraint of 
the criminal as well as his reformation, though by some 
extreme philanthropists it may be denied, yet is here 
assumed to be so generally admitted that it is not felt 
necessary to attempt any formal argument in its proof. 
It is deemed more to the purpose, in the present state 
of jurisprudence and of prison economy, as well as of 
public opinion, to emphasize the other side of the posi- 
tive statement, and to claim for the reformation of the 
criminal its rightful, but much forgotten and neglected, 
and often contested, place among the proper pur- 
poses of penal restraint. It is claimed on four distinct 
grounds : — First, 

Of Humanity. — Even the criminal, as already said, 
has not ceased to be a man ; and those must be ex- 
treme cases in which we have a right to assume that 
any man is so degenerate and utterly corrupt that no 
efforts for his amendment can be of any avail. Even 



120 PRISON ECONOMY. 

in the worst and most abandoned of men, there almost 
always remain some relics, some feeble echoes, at least, 
of right feeling ; some susceptibility to good on one 
side or another; some avenue to some buried and 
dormant sparks of ingenuous and manly emotion; of 
right and virtuous affection. Shall all these be neg- 
lected ? and shall the poor wretch, by the solemn legal 
action and systematic arrangements of a civilized and 
Christian community, be heartlessly cast out, consigned, 
unaided and unfriended, like a wild beast, to the unal- 
leviated and unsoftened influence of mere penal in- 
fliction — infliction which, as he is not a beast but a 
man, with human sensibilities and resentments, must 
ordinarily tend to harden him more and more in the 
recklessness and desperation of inveterate crime ? 
Every generous and honorable and kindly feeling of 
human nature cries out against it ; against mere vin- 
dictive punishment; against cool and unmitigated 
cruelty ; against the infliction of one particle of pain 
beyond what is necessary for the protection and well- 
being of society ; and demands, that if the reformation 
and restoration of the offender be by any reasonable 
methods possible, such methods should be sought out 
and applied. 

It is claimed, secondly, on the ground of 
Simple Right and Justice. — Society, in electing the 
penalty of a term of imprisonment instead of capital 
punishment, has acknowledged that, in her judgment, 
the offender is not a person of such a desperate char- 
acter that her safety requires him to be summarily and 
once for all put out of the way ; she has acknowledged 
that he may not be incorrigible. As imprisonment, 






PRISON ECONOMY. 121 

personal restraint, and detention are a necessary prac- 
tical condition of any reformatory measures or disci- 
pline, so such measures are a necessary logical result 
or concomitant of imprisonment. In depriving the 
man of his own free choice and self-guidance, and 
taking his control into her own hands, society has as- 
sumed an unavoidable responsibility for his future 
moral course and character. He has become her 
ward, and she owes him a afo/yanalagous to that which 
the parent owes to the children whom he retains under 
his government. While she chooses to maintain this re- 
lation to him, she has no right to neglect any means in 
her power for his reformation and moral improvement, 
and, in general, for his preparation to discharge his 
duties as an industrious and virtuous member of so- 
ciety, when he shall be restored to its bosom and placed 
again under his own control. This simple justice re- 
quires, and whatever it may cost to meet it, the state 
cannot rid itself of this responsibility. But, in fact, to 
meet it manfully will be found to save the public more 
than it costs. 

It is claimed, then, in the third place, as demanded 
by the public good, and this in a threefold way: — 

i. As a most effective example deterrent to vice 
and encouraging to virtue. The spectacle of penal 
inflictions, severe and persistent, yet adapted to and 
resulting in the reformation of the criminal, must have 
an unspeakably greater power to deter men from crime 
than the mere infliction of mere punishment, though 
tenfold more rigorous, and however sanguinary and 
cruel. It shows, clear as the sun, the unutterable 



I 2 2 PRISON E CO NO MY. 

folly of crime ; it cows down all its defiant bravado, 
and quells all its bitter hatred against society ; it turns* 
by a flank movement, the last intrenchments of its 
dogged spirit of martyrdom and its pride of heroic 
endurance. Every reformed criminal, returned to the 
bosom of society, while he is thus a living and constant 
lesson of rebuke, of repression, and of humiliation to 
the criminally disposed, must be also a monument of 
encouragement and strength to the feeble endeavors 
of those who, in the midst of temptation, and after 
many failures, would gladly persevere in the effort to 
raise themselves from the moral degradation into 
which they have fallen. 

2. Every criminal reformed is a positive diminution 
of the number of criminals to infest society; and this, 
though such cases should be but few, is no insignificant 
gain, when compared with the process of returning the 
criminal, who has served out his imprisonment, hard- 
ened in crime, hardened by the very punishment he 
has sullenly endured, and rankling with revengeful 
malignity against that society which inflicted the pun- 
ishment; returning- him to reinforce and marshal the 
ever-swelling army of malefactors who are pressing on 
in his footsteps. 

3. Such reformations, to the full extent to which they 
take place, tend powerfully to prevent the education of 
others in crime. That education comes very largely 
from the old adepts, both in prison, — where they are 
promiscuously mixed up with the other prisoners, from 
the youthful novice to the hoary offender, as they natur- 



PRISON E CONOMY. I 2 3 

ally will be when no account is made of the reformation 
of convicts, — and out of prison, after they have been 
discharged unreformed from their term of punishment. 
Prisoners discharged without reformation have taken 
their doctor s degree as teachers of crime. 

It is claimed, in the fourth place, as necessary to 
consistency in our legislation. 

The principle of making the reformation of the con- 
vict one of the chief objects of his imprisonment, has 
been distinctly engrafted upon the legislation of this 
Commonwealth. In connection with county jails it is 
provided by the act of 14th April, 1835, that the matron 
should give the (female) convicts under her charge 
"such instructions as may tend to their reformation, 
and to render them useful members of society." And, 
in connection with the State penitentiaries, it is pro- 
vided, by the act of 23d April, 1829, that "it shall be 
the duty of the instructor to attend to the moral and 
religious instruction of the convicts in such manner as 
to make their confinement as far as possible the means 
of their reformation, so that when restored to their 
liberty they may prove honest, industrious, and useful 
members of society." In establishing her reformatories 
for juvenile offenders, the State has also most clearly 
recognized reformation from crime as a proper object 
of public legislation. In thus selecting juvenile offend- 
ers she has undoubtedly selected both the easiest and 
the most important portion of the work. But reforma- 
tion, if possible, is also desirable in the case of adults; 
and, if not possible, at what precise age did the possi- 
bility cease? In the very name of "penitentiary," 
which the State has given to some of her prisons, 



1 2 4 PRISON E CONOMY. 

she presupposes that it does not cease with adult 
years. 

The reformation of the criminal, therefore, is solemnly 
acknowledged by the State to be an important end of 
his penal restraint, and at the same time it is acknowl- 
edged that restraint will not of itself effect the purpose, 
but that some other special provision is required for its 
accomplishment. Now, these points being conceded, 
consistency plainly demands that the law should not 
stop until it has found some effectual provision for so 
important an end, if any such provision is possible con- 
sistently with the other ends of imprisonment and the 
requirements of the public good. 

At all events, when the reformation of the criminal 
is urged as one of the ends of penal legislation, let it 
be remembered that the existing statute endorses the 
demand ; and when such arrangements of prison disci- 
pline and management are proposed as shall most 
effectually accomplish this end, the proposer is not to 
be bluffed off with any polite allusions to sentimental 
philanthropy, or the easy utterance of any mere phrases 
of disparagement. It is to be seriously and candidly 
inquired and earnestly considered whether such pro- 
posed plans are feasible, and are consistent with the 
other ends of public justice and with the public good. 
If so, they should be forthwith adopted. 

II. LABOR OF CONVICTS. 

We here take for granted that the reformation of 
the convict is one of the objects of his incarceration; 
while fully admitting that punishment is another — for 



PRISON E CO NO MY. I 2 5 

incarceration is punishment. It is accordingly assumed 
that, so far as possible, such means are to be joined 
with the punishment as will render that punishment 
itself reformatory, which alone would not be so. Labor 
is believed to be such a means; and it is now proposed 
to set forth, in some degree at least, how this means 
may be made most effectual to that end. 

1. There are, first, certain important questions as to 
the proper character and conditions of convict labor; 
among them are the following: — 

(a.) The labor itself may be considered a part of the 
punishment ; but should it be purely punitive, or also 
productive ? 

It is believed that labor of a merely punitive character 
can have no reformatory and little deterring effect. It 
sours, irritates, hardens. It seems to be now generally 
conceded that the tread-mill, as a form of labor or a sub- 
stitute for it, is productive of little if any good, but rather 
of much harm ; and it is to the credit of French prison 
discipline that, though French history has had its Bastile, 
the French language has no term whereby to trans- 
late the name of this engine of punishment. In its 
expensive uselessness, it is a merely vindictive and de- 
grading infliction. It is, moreover, unjust and unequal, 
imposing what may be an easy exertion for one and a 
most exhausting, if not dangerous, exertion for another. 
And finally, the tread-mill system taken instead of pro- 
ductive employment is a manifest and wanton waste of 
what might just as well be utilized as thrown away. If 
employed at all in prisons, it should not be as a constant 



I 2 6 PRISON E CONOMY. 

thing, or as a general substitute for proper work, but it 
should be reserved for some special and extraordinary 
occasions, as a punishment for gross violations of order, 
or for the health of the prisoner who positively declines 
to work. If labor is to be made even a wholesome 
punishment, still more if it is to be made a means of 
reformation, it must be productive. However grievous, 
it must be attended with the apprehension that it has 
some other object than merely to punish, and with the 
encouragement that it accomplishes something. It 
must have so much the character of ordinary labor as 
to tend to form habits of mind and body which will be 
of service to the prisoner after his release. 

(b.) Shall the labor be performed in cells or in 
common workshops, in individual separation or in 
groups ? 

This might bring up the whole vexed question be- 
tween the solitary and the congregate systems of peni- 
tentiary discipline, which it is not proposed now to 
discuss; nor is it necessary, for reformatory labor can 
be appropriately combined with both. But, as will be 
seen in the sequel, there are weighty reasons for the 
conclusion that it cannot completely answer its best pur- 
poses if confined exclusively and throughout the whole 
period of discipline to either. 

To this subject we have already referred in our 
former reports. In that of 1870 we alluded to "a 
change in the Pennsylvania system which has recently 
taken place in one of the penitentiaries of the State, 
under the sanction of law. By recent legislation, 
namely, under date 8th April, 1869, the congregate 



PRISON E CONOMY. 1 2 7 

system is allowed in the Western Penitentiary for the 
several purposes of labor, learning, and religious in- 
struction. The government and officers are unani- 
mous in the approval of the system thus introduced." 
In regard to this partial introduction of the congregate 
system, we added : — " There are embarrassments which 
oppress every unprejudiced mind in its reflections upon 
this grave subject. It cannot fail to discover, with 
other advantages, vigorous and remunerative labor, 
which is always morally healthful, accomplished on the 
one side, and a discipline exerted under circumstances 
accordant with man's nature and condition ; and on 
the other side, it sees as plainly, baleful exposures of 
convicts to mutual acquaintanceship and probably con- 
tamination — the possibly innocent, the certainly un- 
hardened, with the obdurate and insensate criminal ; 
and the want, also, of that opportunity of intro-reflection 
which, if not enforced, may never come, and which is 
a necessary foundation for a trustworthy reform." 

In the report of last year, having pointed out the ex- 
treme peril of " relieving a man from solitude after a 
few months of effort for his reformation, by transfer- 
ring him from an apartment in which he had no so- 
ciety, except when visited by the benevolent for his 
good, to the common receptacles for men convicted of 
crime," we added : — " Prevention of intercourse be- 
tween convicted criminals, from first to last, we esteem 
indispensable to successful effort for their reform. Let 
them have stated and, so far as may be, diversified oc- 
cupation ; let them have carefully selected books for 
entertainment ; let them receive visits from judicious 
friends and counselors seeking their good; but keep 



I 2 8 PRISON E CONOMY. 

them away, while in the custody of the State, from in- 
tercourse with each other." 

We beg now to observe that, in that connection, we 
could not be supposed to mean that no intercourse what- 
ever between any two convicts, however carefully se- 
lected at any period in their course of reformation or for 
any purpose or under any circumstances whatever, 
would be safe or should be allowed ; but that they should 
be kept away from that sort of general or indiscriminate 
intercourse which prevails ordinarily under the congre- 
gate system ; to which system, conducted in any such 
way as we have had the opportunity of observing, we 
remain, as in the past, thoroughly opposed. Besides 
which, as we have said in another place, we must 
"take things as they are," and as they have been 
qualified and determined by public sentiment and 
legislation founded thereon, if our views are to be 
made practically suggestive. 

Thus, after the earnest advocacy of the strictly 
"separate" system of imprisonment by some of the 
best and most philanthropic minds of the State, often 
against strenuous opposition ; and after an example of 
its practical application for nearly half a century in 
what may be called model establishments, designed in 
all their appliances for the perfect carrying out of the 
system, what do we find ? Not one prison or peni- 
tentiary in the State in which it is conducted in its en- 
tirety. We find the authorities of one penitentiary 
repudiating it and demanding its overthrow there, and 
the legislature acquiescing in their demand ; while, at 
the same time, it denies to the other the full realization 
of the opposite views — held with equal tenacity by 



PRISON ECONOMY. , 1 29 

high, even exceptional ability, influence, and experi- 
ence — by keeping the penitentiary accommodations so 
restricted as effectually to prevent, in many cases, the 
separate confinement of its prisoners. 

And the "separate system" is equally neglected in 
the county establishments. In these, with the excep- 
tion of an inconsiderable number, where it partially 
obtains, there is no attempt to follow the system in any 
one respect. Premising this we proceed : — 

Strictly solitary confinement for a long period, with- 
out labor, is a punishment altogether too cruel to be 
imposed; it is more than human nature can bear; it 
must undermine and break down the health both of 
body and mind ; it is killing by inches, inflicting capital 
punishment by slow degrees ; or if the convict survives, 
and is at length released, he is let out upon society 
vastly more unfit and more unlikely to discharge his 
duties then, and earn an honest livelihood, than he was 
before his incarceration. And even if solitary labor 
be added to such confinement, continued through the 
entire period of penitentiary discipline, while all must 
admit that much of the cruelty, and many of the physi- 
cal and moral evils may be avoided, it may be seriously 
questioned whether the prospect, upon the convict's 
release, will be most favorable to the discharge of 
these duties. It is at least fair to inquire : — Is he likely 
to continue such labor when restored to liberty and to 
the influence of free society ? What training has it 
furnished him for meeting the accumulated trials and 
difficulties and temptations that surround and oppress 
him the moment he is thrown again upon society and 
his own resources ? His labor has not been pursued 



130 PRISON ECONOMY. 

under the ordinary circumstances, motives, and in- 
fluences. His discipline may have made him an 
excellently well-behaved convict, but has it prepared 
him to meet the perils, and perform the duties, of a 
free and industrious member of society? 

On the other hand, if the congregate system of labor, 
is applied indiscriminately, and throughout the whole 
period of imprisonment, to all grades and classes of con- 
victs alike, mixing all up together in working gangs, — 
young and old, novices and adepts in crime ; those 
committed for greater and those for lesser offenses, 
for longer and for shorter periods ; those convicted 
for the second or the third time, and those under 
punishment for their first offense ; the old long-wonted 
inmates of the prison and the new-comers, — it will 
scarcely be possible, by any methods or contrivances 
for enforcing silence and shutting off communication, 
to prevent such companies from becoming schools of 
increasing corruption and wickedness, instead of amend- 
ment and reformation. The only preventive must be 
a free and familiar use of the lash; a mode of punish- 
ment so inhuman and degrading that it is scarcely 
allowed by enlightened and civilized jurisprudence to 
be inflicted for any crime, even upon the sentence of 
any magistrate or judge, high or low ; a punishment, 
therefore, one would suppose still less to be left to the 
daily discretion of mere prison-keepers or underling 
overseers. And if all objections were removed, labor 
under such circumstances is, as we shall endeavor 
further on to show more fully, little fitted to train men 
to earn their subsequent livelihood in habits of free 
and virtuous industry. 



PRISON ECONOMY. , 131 

In order to approximate the desired reformatory 
result, would it not be better that the two systems — the 
separate and the congregate — should be combined, 
each at its proper season, in its proper degree, and with 
a due regard to the natural disposition and habits, the 
temper and character, of the different prisoners ? It is 
believed they may be so combined most effectually 
and advantageously. Indeed, the latter system, under 
any tolerable existing arrangement, is so far combined 
with the former as to provide for the distribution of 
the prisoners into separate cells by night. How the 
two systems may be best combined in connection with 
the different periods of the term of imprisonment and 
the different classes and characters of the prisoners, it 
is proposed to develop under another head. 

The importance of labor as an element of corrective 
discipline, as well as the importance of combining the 
two systems of labor, is thus set forth by one of the 
earliest and most earnest advocates of the separate 
system, Mr. Edward Livingston : — 

"Of all the crimes in the catalogue of human de- 
pravity, four-fifths are, in different forms, invasions of 
private property ; and the motive for committing them 
is the desire of obtaining, without labor, the enjoy- 
ments which property brings. The natural corrective 
is to deprive the offender of the gratifications he ex- 
pects, and to convince him that they can be acquired 
by the exertion of industry. The remaining propor- 
tion of offenses are such as arise from the indulgence 
of the bad passions, and for those also solitude and 
employment are the best correctives. But whatever 
corrects the desire or the passion that prompts the 



132 Pfi/SON ECONOMY. 

offense, acts in the double capacity, first of punishment, 
and, afterwards, when it is effected, of reformation. 
* * The prisoner who labors lessens the 
expense of his support ; he who works skillfully and 
diligently may more than repay it. The advantage of 
this beneficial result must be felt by the prisoner as well 
as by the state ; if the proceeds of his work should not 
be sufficient to cover his expenses, it yet produces for 
him a better diet ; and if preserved in and accom- 
panied with good conduct, for certain probationary 
periods of six and twelve months, during which he is 
permitted, in the day, to leave his cell and pursue his 
solitary employment in the court, he is indulged with 
the privilege of working and receiving instruction in a 
small class, not exceeding ten."* 

(c.) Another question is, should convict labor be 
purposely made servile and degrading, or as cheerful 
and elevating as possible ? 

To answer this question, we have only to propose 
and answer to ourselves another question : is it our 
purpose, by the temporary incarceration of criminals 
to make them worse, and then turn them out upon 
society again ; or to make them better fitted and better 
disposed, upon their return, to discharge the duties of 
virtuous and industrious citizens ? Our means must 
be adapted to the end we have in view ; and we are 
responsible for the end to which our means are adapted. 
But what right have we forcibly to seize upon a bad 
man and make him worse ? What right have we to 

* Livingston's Criminal Code, pages 309 and 337. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 133 

deprive an erring fellow-mortal of his own free choice, 
unless we, at the same time, use all the means in 
our power so to control and guide him as to reform 
his errors and turn him into the paths of virtue and 
rectitude ? The man is dejected, desponding, distrust- 
ful of his power of self-control or of virtuous living ; 
shall we discourage him still more ? Shall we drive 
him to desperation? He is degraded, degraded in 
fact, degraded in his own eyes ; shall we degrade him 
still more ? He is reckless and malicious ; shall we 
sink him to lower depths of recklessness, and add a 
new fund of venom to his malice ? If not, if we pro- 
pose to raise and reform him, shall we make the very 
labor on which we rely for that end a badge of degra- 
dation ? Let it be understood, once for all, that no 
degrading inflictions whatever can restore a spirit of 
manliness to the corrupt and depraved. Labor, im- 
posed under such a category, is not likely to be con- 
tinued after release, nor can it be regarded by the 
released convict with complacency or respect. And 
yet that complacency in labor, that respect for labor, 
are precisely what it was above all things necessary to 
associate with it in the convict's mind ; so that, after 
release, he might be weaned from his evil courses and 
disposed to resort to the proper methods of obtaining 
an honest livelihood. To this end his labor, while in 
detention, should be made, as far as possible, cheerful 
and attractive, a constant means of encouragement and 
elevation. That this need not be inconsistent with his 
severe and terrible punishment, will, in the sequel, be 
made sufficiently clear. 



134 PRISON ECONOMY. 

(cl.) Should convict labor be enforced or voluntary ? 

This question covers the principle which controls the 
case ; it embraces and sums up most of the other in- 
quiries. 

The effort to get the benefits without bearing the 
burdens of labor is the occasion of most of the of- 
fenses committed against society. To correct this dis- 
position is the grand business of penitentiary discipline. 
Enforced labor may do something towards this end by 
forming certain physical habits, and imparting or rather 
impressing a certain degree of training to orderly rou- 
tine and manual dexterity ; but the motives and asso- 
ciations under which this is done are such that there 
must be the greatest danger that the best-behaved and 
most industrious and skillful convict will lose his good 
habits, and disuse or misuse his skill, as soon as he is 
committed again to his own control. 

We venture to retrace here somewhat at large Mr. 
Livingston's plan of voluntary convict labor. 

" No succession of involuntary acts to which adults 
may be coerced is likely to produce permanent habits 
of reformation ; they must be the effect of the will, 
operated upon by the judgment, producing a con- 
viction that such acts are beneficial ; and experience 
must enforce this conviction by giving the actual en- 
joyment of some, and the certain hope of other, bene- 
fits that are the result of these acts. With evil habits 
it is different ; for the most part they are acquired by 
the repetition of acts procuring sensual enjoyment ; 
and the judgment has so little agency in procuring 
them, that it must be silenced or perverted before the 
acts of indulgence are done or repeated. It is for this 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 35 

reason that the work of reformation is more difficult 
than that of perversion ; the one requires intellectual 
power sufficient to prefer a distant and moral good 
to a present and physical enjoyment ; the other coin- 
cides with the natural propensity for present enjoy- 
ment, reckless of what an uncertain futurity may pro- 
duce. And for this reason, also, it is that the work of 
reformation is slower in its operation than that of cor- 
ruption. * * * The spring which sets in 
motion my whole machinery for producing reform is 
this : — That all the acts which, by their succession, are 
to produce habits of good, are to be performed volun- 
tarily, and are offered as alleviations of the severity of 
the sentence ; the will must act, or the repetition will 
produce no effect. But, to operate on the inclination, 
sufficient inducements must be held out to overcome 
the natural repugnance to labor. * * 
Privation of employment is denounced as a part of 
the punishment ; and this circumstance alone would, 
with most men, cause it to be considered as an evil, 
and the experience of its effects will soon cause it to 
be felt as such ; of course it will be connected with the 
idea of suffering ; and occupation being denied, will, 
from the propensity to wish for that from which we are 
expressly debarred, be estimated as a good, and 
desired with an intensity proportioned to the stric- 
tures and length of the privation. To strengthen 
this natural desire other inducements are offered. 
If the prisoner acquires such pro- 
ficiency in the business as to make the proceeds of his 
industry exceed the expense of his support, he is al- 
lowed the immediate enjoyment of a part, to be laid 



136 PRISON ECONOMY. 

out in books or such other articles as he may desire. 
Those of food or drink are excepted, in order to avoid 
irregularities that otherwise would be unavoidable ; and 
the residue of the surplus is an accumulating fund to 
be paid to him on his discharge. To give the greater 
effect to these inducements, they are not offered to the 
convict on his commitment to the prison ; first, he must 
know and feel the unmitigated punishment ; his own 
reflections must be his only companions for a prelimi- 
nary period, during which he is closely confined to his 
cell ; he must live on the coarse diet allowed to the 
unemployed prisoner ; he must suffer the tedium aris- 
ing from want of society and occupation, and when he 
begins to feel that labor would be an indulgence, it is 
offered to him as such ; it is not threatened to him as 
an evil, nor urged upon his acceptance as an advantage 
to any but to himself; and when he is employed, no 
stripes, no punishment whatever are inflicted for want 
of diligence ; if not properly used the indulgence is 
withdrawn, and he returns to his solitude and other 
privations, not to punish him for not laboring, but 
merely because his comduct shows that he prefers that 
state to the enjoyment with which employment must 
always be associated in his mind, in order to produce 
reformation. If it has been shown that involuntary 
acts will not produce a lasting habit, then, if there be 
any such as will not accept these alleviations of their 
imprisonment upon them the imprisonment must ope- 
rate solely as a punishment. But experience shows 
that these exceptions will, if any, be very few, for 
employment, even under the lash, is in most cases pre- 
ferred to solitude." (Pages 336, 337.) 



PRISON ECONOMY. 137 

To this we might propose to add, as will be seen, a 
further but cautious introduction of social labor (still 
voluntary), with increasing degrees of liberty, as the 
process of reformation goes on, until the reformed 
convict passes into society in full freedom, by an easy 
step, with habits ready formed for his new condition, 
prepared to act upon the same motives after his re- 
lease as before, and without any great shock either to 
society or to himself. 

It maybe objected that, in the plan above described, 
the labor is, after all, enforced ; that the remanding to 
the solitary cell, without occupation, is coercion as much 
as the lash. We answer, first, that it involves no deg- 
radation ; secondly, it is self-inflicted — a deliberately 
chosen alternative ; thirdly, in its nature it leads not to 
passion but to consideration ; fourthly, when the labor 
comes it comes not as a punishment, but as an allevi- 
ation of punishment ; and, fifthly, the labor, if enforced, 
is enforced by the same sort of motives by which it is 
enforced in ordinary life, i. e., as a means of obtaining 
certain objects of desire, of comfort, and gratification. 

It may be objected that, in its ultimate working, this 
plan leaves punishment out of account altogether, and 
aims exclusively at reformation. We answer, no ; the 
proper punishment yet remains in full force — imprison- 
ment, solitude, want of occupation either for the mind 
or body, coarse aliments, hard lodging, clothing of the 
roughest kind. These are the evils of which punish- 
ments are composed ; their duration, their intensity, their 
cumulation, are the means of adapting them to differ- 
ent offenses, and are to be duly prescribed in each sen- 
tence ; their alleviation in different degrees and after 



138 PRISON ECONOMY. 

the prescribed interval, by permitted and encouraged 
labor, is the means of producing reform. 

It may be objected that thus the deterring power of 
punishment is destroyed. Again we answer, no ; the 
punishment, with all its terror, still remains, in such 
degree and for such period as the law judges neces- 
sary ; but the remedial system is added, — a system 
which, itself also, teaches all criminals and criminally- 
disposed persons that the only way to escape the pun- 
ishment is to resort to that very labor, the hope of 
avoiding which is their most ordinary temptation to 
crime. 

(e.) Is the reformatory labor to be performed under 
the immediate oversight and direction of the prison 
authorities, or by the intervention and under the con- 
trol of contractors ? 

The answer is, emphatically, the former and not the 
latter. Nothing has led to orreater deterioration of 
prison discipline, corruption of the prison-keepers, and 
demoralization of the prisoners than this system of con- 
tract labor, wherever it has been adopted. It com- 
pletely annuls the idea of reformation as an object of 
prison labor, and makes it merely a means of petty 
profit or pecuniary relief to the state (in which it some- 
times signally fails), and of untold and irresponsible 
oppressions and cruelties on the part of the interested 
and unfeeling overseers and drivers. The labor should 
be performed under the eye and control of responsible 
parties, who have no selfish ends to accomplish by it, 
and who will take a humane and personal interest in 
the welfare and amendment of the convicts. Not the 



PRISON ECONOMY. 139 

present profit of the labor, but its bearing upon the 
future good of the laborer is the absorbing concern. 
The health, strength, and previous habits of prisoners 
are to be considered ; not the amount of product, but 
faithfulness and diligence are to be rewarded. 

(f.) And here the general question may be raised, 
whether the products of convict labor should inure 
exclusively to the benefit of the state, or also to the 
present and future benefit of the convicts. 

In answer, we have no hesitation in saying that if it 
is to accomplish its reformatory function to any consid- 
erable degree, its profits must be permitted to inure in 
part and sensibly to the benefit of the convict. This 
is an essential point. The state should undoubtedly 
have the first and largest portion of the proceeds, not 
from any petty economical motive, but because it is 
highly important for the convict to learn and feel that 
he owes a debt for his past iniquity and for his present 
support, which he is bound in reason and honesty to 
pay. The next largest portion should be appropriated, 
if needed, towards the relief or support of his de- 
pendent family during his detention, that he may learn 
the blessing which labor confers of making others 
happy whom we desire to benefit. The next part, to 
be determined according to fixed rules, in a certain 
proportion to industry and good conduct, should be 
set aside to accumulate, if not forfeited in whole or in 
part by misconduct, as a fund to be used and enjoyed 
after his liberation ; that he may learn the next lesson 
of honest and thrifty labor — to deny himself for the 
present in order to provide for the future. And, 



140 PRISON ECONOMY. 

finally, a certain small surplus, to be determined in 
like manner, should be placed at his immediate control, 
as a means of purchasing such present alleviations and 
comforts as are consistent with his state of detention 
and punishment; that he may learn the final lesson of 
labor that all the alleviations and comforts of a hard 
life are the proper rewards of a patient and persistent 
toil. Thus his convict labor will powerfully tend to 
his practical and permanent reformation. 

2. It may be proper, in the second place, to present 
in one view the benefits of such reformatory convict 
labor. 

(a.) It will promote the health and well-being of the 
prisoners, both in mind and body. Without some 
labor bodily health — and without such labor, mental 
health — must terribly suffer ; a kind and degree of 
suffering which we have no right to inflict. 

(b.) It will promote their moral improvement, gradu- 
ally developing the power of self-control, and forming 
habits of provident and voluntary effort in industry 
and toil. It will prepare them to become virtuous and 
useful members of society. 

(c.) It will facilitate the preservation of good order 
and discipline in the prison. The wise management of 
the reserve fund and of the present reward for dili- 
gence and good conduct will enable the prison-keepers 
to dispense, in almost all cases, with all other means of 
enforcing in the prison the rules of good government. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 141 

Thus prison life will be divested of most of those hor- 
rible abominations which so often render it a means of 
much greater evil than good. 

(d.) It will give the convicts the essential prepara- 
tion for gaining a livelihood after their release ; first, 
by forming habits of voluntary industry; secondly, by 
securing a little fund to aid them during the critical 
period of transition from prison to social life ; and, 
thirdly, by instilling a moral character which will enable 
them to resist the temptations of their old associates 
and commend themselves to the confidence of the 
community. 

(e.) It will promote the good of the state ; first, in 
presenting the most efficacious example to deter or 
wean others from crime ; secondly, in diminishing the 
expense of maintaining prisons ; thirdly, in preventing 
the relapse of the criminal ; and, fourthly, in adding to 
the resources of the state the industry, and to its well- 
being the virtue, of another citizen. 

3. It is sometimes objected to productive convict 
labor that it interferes with the rights and interests of 
labor in general. 

One hardly knows where to begin or end in showing 
the absurdity of such an objection. It belongs to the 
category of the exploded outcries against the intro- 
duction of labor-saving machinery, or of any improve- 
ments in the processes of production, whereby it was 
said the demand for laborers would be diminished 
and their waees reduced ; whereas it has turned out 



142 PRISON ECONOMY. 

that just the contrary has been, in the long run, the 
uniform and natural result. 



We have seen that, whatever may be the effect upon 
the wages of labor, or upon the price of its products, 
we have no right, instead of hanging or shooting our 
fellow-men, to inflict upon them the outrageous punish- 
ment of incarcerating them for years in solitary cells 
without any occupation, or, still worse, of shutting them 
up in mixed congregate masses of all sorts of crimi- 
nals and leaving them in sheer idleness to make one 
another as thoroughly corrupt and diabolical as human 
nature is capable of becoming ; and, if we have the 
right, it would be the most egregious political folly to 
do it. Moreover, we have seen that labor, to serve 
any good purpose, must be productive. We meet the 
objector, then, at this point; and we say that, accord- 
ing to him, when this labor has resulted in creating a 
certain amount of valuable products, it would be more 
for the interest of society — if the interests of labor and 
society are identical — that all those products should 
forthwith be committed to the flames or cast into the 
sea, than that they should be preserved and applied to 
their appropriate uses ! If it is rejoined that the com- 
petition of such labor is unfair because, unlike the or- 
dinary laborer, the convict is supported independently 
of his work ; we have only to say, let the products of 
prison labor be disposed of at public auction or at 
market rates, and no one has a right to complain of 
the competition for its tendency to reduce prices. 
Every addition to the supply might be complained of 
for the same reason. The state, not the convict, is the 



PRISON ECONOMY. , 143 

owner of the articles ; and the state is as directly inter- 
ested in getting the highest price for these articles, 
that thus she may meet the expense of maintaining 
the convict, as any laborer is in getting the highest 
price for his products to meet his own expenses. 

The plain state of the case is this : all in the com- 
munity must be supported ; the fewer idlers, therefore, 
to be supported by the rest, the better for the rest ; 
and if this alleged reduction of price in consequence 
of this competition of convict labor exists, and is a tax, 
it is the smallest tax possible, if convicts are to be sup- 
ported at all, upon the labor of the community — and 
upon that labor all taxes must ultimately fall. 

4. The laws of Pennsylvania actually require pro- 
vision to be made for the labor of all convicts, whether 
in the State penitentiaries or in the county prisons. 

For the penitentiaries, it is required, by the act of 
31st March, i860, that "whenever any person shall be 
sentenced to imprisonment at labor, by separate or 
solitary confinement, for any period not less than one 
year, the imprisonment and labor shall be had and 
performed in the State penitentiary for the proper 
district : Provided, That nothing in this section con- 
tained shall prevent such person from being sentenced 
to imprisonment and labor, by separate or solitary con- 
finement, in the county prisons now or hereafter author- 
ized by law to receive convicts of a like description." 
And, by the act of 23d April, 1829, it is required of 
the inspectors that " they shall direct the manner in 
which raw materials, to be manufactured by the con- 
victs in said prisons, and the provisions and other 



144 PRISON ECONOMY. 

supplies for the prisons shall be purchased, and also the 
sale of all articles manufactured in said prisons." 

For the county jails, it is declared, by the act of 5th 
April, 1 790, that " the malefactors sentenced to hard 
labor as aforesaid, in the several counties of the State, 
other than the county of Philadelphia, shall be em- 
ployed in the several jails and workhouses in the 
respective counties, in such hard and servile labor, and 
fed and clothed in such manner as is hereinbefore di- 
rected ; * * * and the duty of the said 
keepers shall be to superintecd and direct their labors ; 
* * * and they shall have authority to con- 
fine, in close durance, apart from all society, all those 
who shall refuse to labor, or be idle," &c. 

" The keepers of the jails and workhouses or houses 
of correction, shall, once in every three months, or 
oftener, if required, furnish the commissioners of their 
respective counties with a complete calendar or list of 
all persons committed to their respective custody, 
under sentence of such servitude, &c. ; * 
and the said commissioners shall, at the charge of the 
proper county, provide * * * such arti- 

cles and materials of labor and manufacture as shall be 
most suitable for the employment of all those who are 
capable of labor or manufacture, and deliver the same 
to the said jailor or workhouse-keeper, taking a re- 
ceipt therefor ; and the jailor or workhouse-keeper 
shall render an account quarterly, or oftener, if re- 
quired, to the commissioners, of the work done by the 
said malefactors, and dispose of the same in such man- 
ner as the commissioners shall direct.' 1 

" If any jailor shall neglect or refuse to give notice 



PRISON ECONOMY. 145 

or furnish a complete calendar, &c, * * 

he shall forfeit and pay, for every such neglect or re- 
fusal, the sum of one hundred dollars; and if the said 
commissioners of any county, after the receipt of such 
notice or calendar, shall neglect or refuse to procure 
sufficient articles and materials of labor and manufac- 
ture, * * * such commissioners, or any 
of them, so neglecting or refusing, shall forfeit and pay 
the sum of one hundred dollars for every such neglect 
or refusal." 

In relation to the Philadelphia County Prison, similar 
provisions are made by special statutes. 

Now we must confess that the language f the stat- 
ic o 

utes seems rather harsh ; yet we have a right to pre- 
sume that the terms " hard " and " servile " labor mean 
no more than ?na?tual labor carried to the extent of 
bodily fatigue. We admit, also, that it is enforced 
labor for which provision is made by the law ; but 
even enforced labor, whether with solitary or social 
confinement, is unspeakably better than sheer idleness, 
both for body and mind, for the morals and the future 
prospects of the convicts. But when the prisons are 
so wretchedly constructed or mismanaged or over- 
crowded, that the system of separate confinement is 
practically abandoned, and the convicts are mixed pro- 
miscuously together, or thrown into cells by pairs or in 
companies of three, four, or half a dozen, and these left 
without employment, we have as bad a system as could 
well be conceived. If the worst enemy of mankind 
were to invent a school for the propagation of vice 
and crime, he could invent no better. And, alas, not- 
withstanding the stringent provisions of the statute, 



146 PRISON ECONOMY. 

this is, to an alarming extent, the condition of the 
county jails of this Commonwealth. The labor de- 
signed by the statute is not provided for, is not re- 
quired, is not performed. The convicts are defrauded 
of the employment to which they have a statutory right. 
They suffer the consequences, and the State must suf- 
fer them too. 

The State provides for labor — enforced labor, as we 
have said ; but this is not all. The State provides 
also for reformatory, voluntary labor, both in the 
jails and in the penitentiaries. The State declares 
that " it shall be the duty of the inspectors, sher- 
iffs, or other persons having charge of any peniten- 
tiary or jail within this Commonwealth, to transmit 
to the secretary thereof, on or before the first day 
of February, in each and every year, a full state- 
ment in detail of the condition of such penitentiary 
or jail, * * * and whether an oppor- 

tunity is afforded to the prisoners for doing overwork, 
or for receiving in any other manner the profits of their 
labor ." Now this implies that the "hard and servile 
labor " enforced is not intended to be of so extremely 
exacting a kind as might be imagined ; for it is not 
to be supposed that the State would mock her convicts. 
The enforced labor leaves time and strength for more 
work. Certain reasonable tasks being presumed, pro- 
vision is made for " overwork," for voluntary work ; 
and even for the convict receiving in other ways, as 
an encouragement, a portion of the profits of his labor. 
The statute recognizes the principle for which we con- 
tend, the beneficent end we would accomplish. 

What is needed is : First, that the statute should 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 47 

be enforced, so that its beneficent purpose may not be 
frustrated by neglect and abuse ; and secondly, that 
further provision should be made for carrying out the 
principle recognized, by improving the structure and 
enlarging the capacity of the county prisons, and by 
expanding the sphere of voluntary labor, and systema- 
tizing its operation, so as to render it a means of 
general and permanent reformation. Such a means 
we firmly believe it might be made, and the State might 
rather gain than lose by the arrangement, even in the 
lowest pecuniary point of view. If voluntary were 
substituted systematically for enforced labor, fixed 
rations might be abolished altogether, and the prisoner 
required to earn his food, as well as his other privileges 
and comforts. 

III. INSTRUCTION TO CONVICTS. 

For the general protection of the community against 
crime, the importance of instruction in the case of the 
young and of juvenile offenders, is, at least in theory, 
commonly admitted. One after another, civilized states 
are waking up to the necessity of a more thorough ap- 
plication of the theory in practical legislation. Our 
own State has done much in this direction, although it 
must be admitted much more remains to be done. 

The case of adults, and of adults already criminal, 
is more difficult and less hopeful. They have habits — 
it may be inveterate habits — of evil to be eradicated; 
they need habits of good to be initiated and confirmed ; 
they are slow to apprehend and receive the lessons of 
instruction, and quick to lose what they have learned ; 



148 PRISON ECONOMY. 

in them the valvular system has been inverted so that 
the avenues for the entrance of knowledge and of good 
influences are almost closed, while the passage for 
egress and leakage are open and free ; they resist 
good impressions like a surface of flint, and discharge 
them like gum-elastic. All this is extremely discourag- 
ing ; and when the mass of criminals is looked upon 
as they pass through the hands of the police and the 
dock of the criminal court into the prison cells, no 
wonder that most men shake their heads incredulously 
at the idea of their possible restoration to the paths of 
manly virtue and the companionship of good society. 

There is much truth, though quite too little of hope- 
fulness, in the nervous utterance of an Edinburgh 
police detective : — 

"The simple truth is, that punishment hardens. It 
is forgotten by the hopeful people that it is clay they 
have to work upon, not gold ; and, therefore, while 
they are passing the material through the fire, they are 
making bricks, not golden crowns of righteousness. 
Enough, too, has been made of the evident-enough 
fact, that they must continue their old courses, because 
there is no asylum for them. You may build as 
many asylums as you please, but the law of these 
strange nurselings of society's own maternity cannot be 
changed in this way. I say nothing of God's grace — 
that is above my comprehension ; but, except for that y 
we need entertain no hope of the repentance and 
amendment of regular thieves and robbers. They 
have, perhaps, their use. They can be made examples 
of to others, but seldom or never good examples to 
themselves. That they will always exist is, I fear, fated ; 



PRISON ECONOMY. , 1 49 

but modern experience tells us that they may be dimin- 
ished by simply drawing- them, when very young, within 
the circle of civilization, in place of the old way of keep- 
ing them out of it." 

We would not say a word to diminish the motives 
for carrying out this last suggestion, or to detract from 
its force. It presents the true, radical remedy for the 
appalling evil. But the exception which the policeman 
has made may have a wider and deeper significance 
than he seems to suppose. That "grace," however 
incomprehensible to him or to us, furnishes the true 
point dappui for all our efforts — it is neither to be 
despised nor ignored. We have no right to despair 
of the salvability of the most depraved and degraded 
men. We must try all possible means — more than 
one plan, and that a hackneyed and fruitless plan — 
before we give up all hope. We must remember that, 
if these "strange nurselings of society's own maternity" 
are what and where they are, not so much by their 
own fault as because we have failed to draw them or 
to attempt "to draw them, when young, within the cir- 
cle of civilization," the blame for their condition is after 
all more our own than theirs. They are to blame, no 
doubt; they have sinned; they must be punished; 
society must be protected. But, if society punishes 
them, she must punish them, not with pharisaic inso- 
lence, disgust, and contempt, but in a spirit of regretful 
kindness, and with an earnest and honest endeavor to 
make amends to them for her past neglect. She will 
best protect herself by reforming them. Hitherto pun- 
ishment alone, or almost alone, has been tried — and 
"punishment hardens." Now let patient instruction 



150 PRISON ECONOMY. 

and a scheme of reformatory influences be tried — 
systematically, consistently, and perseveringly tried — 
before we hopelessly abandon them to their "fate." 
The appeal to " fate " is quite out of place. Because 
disease and death are " fated " always to remain in the 
world, we do not abandon the use of remedies. Some 
sick men may be cured, though many die. Which 
may be saved we know not ; but our general principle 
is, that while there is life there is hope. Hitherto 
prisoners, upon their discharge, have been compelled 
to " continue their old courses, because there was no 
asylum for them." Let us then provide an asylum for 
them, and try it. Hitherto, if we have had no experi- 
ence of drawing back to the circle of civilization adult 
men who had wandered from it, it is because the effort 
has not been seriously and patiently made upon any 
principles or methods affording a reasonable promise 
of success. But we have some " experience " of men 
being thus drawn back ; and it remains for us to study 
and apply the principles and the method on which it 
has been done. 

The shrewd and striking statement above cited has 
been thus enlarged upon, because it has been felt that 
it contains, in a condensed and pointed form, an ex- 
pression of the desponding judgment, which is quite 
too prevalent in the mass of the distant and unobserv- 
ing community, sustained by the dicta of some of the 
keenest and coolest proximate observers. It certainly 
needs to be carefully reconsidered. 

As ignorance and the want of a right education are 
the concomitant causes of most offenses against 
society, so instruction is a necessary condition of the 



PRISON ECONOMY. , 1 51 

efficiency of any scheme of reformation. Any scheme 
having reformation for its principal or even incidental 
object is imperfect, if not utterly useless, if it do not 
contain a regular and permanent provision for educa- 
tion in knowledge and virtue. The old rubbish must 
be removed and a new foundation of principles must 
be laid ; a new set of motives must be brought into 
play; the intellect must be aroused, and such knowl- 
edge imparted as will qualify the recipient for intelli- 
gent and manly occupation. One great point to be 
reached in the process of reformation is to counteract 
in the will the natural preference of present enjoyment 
to future good. To produce this effect the mind must 
be improved by intellectual instruction ; it must be 
taught that there are other pleasures besides those of 
sense. The conscience must be awakened and quick- 
ened, and religion must be brought to bear its part in 
the work of amelioration. Her lessons must furnish 
the basis for all the rest ; but her lessons will be offered 
to the greatest advantage, when, combined with in- 
struction in useful knowledge, they are offered as they 
should be; not as a part of the sentence of punish- 
ment, but as an alleviation of its rigor. Bodily exer- 
cise will profit little. It is the mind, the soul, of the 
convict that is to be gained. 

" Let it not be said that the idea of moral reclama- 
tion is too refined to be adapted to depraved and 
degraded convicts. Convicts are men. The most de- 
praved and degraded are men ; their minds are moved 
by the same springs that give activity to those of 
others ; they avoid pain with the same care and pursue 
pleasure with the same avidity that actuate their fellow- 



152 PRISON ECONOMY. 

mortals. It is the false direction only of these great 
motives that produces the criminal actions which they 
prompt. To turn them into a course that will pro- 
mote the true happiness of the individual, by making 
him cease to injure that of society, should be the great 
object of penal jurisprudence. The error, it appears, 
lies in considering them as beings of a nature so in- 
ferior as to be incapable of elevation, and so bad as to 
make any amelioration impossible ; but crime is the 
effect principally of intemperance, idleness, ignorance, 
vicious associations, irreligion, and poverty, — not of any 
defective natural organization ; and the laws which 
permit the unrestrained and continual exercise of these 
causes are themselves the sources of those excesses 
which legislators, to cover their own inattention or ig- 
norance or indolence, impiously and falsely ascribe to 
the Supreme Being, as if he had created man incapable 
of receiving the impressions of good. Let us try the 
experiment before we pronounce that even the de- 
graded convict cannot be reclaimed. It has never yet 
been tried." 

When, in spite of ample knowledge and instruction 
before received, men have committed crimes and be- 
come hardened in wickedness, — and we must admit 
that this is sometimes the sad and chilling fact, — their 
case is indeed almost, but not quite, desperate. All 
possible remedies must be tried before we give them 
up for lost ; and can we tell when the bounds of pos- 
sibility have been reached ? Line upon line, line 
upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept ; 
the same old means must be renewed and repeated 
under a change of circumstances, which we may hope 



PRISON E CONOMY. I 5 3 

to be more favorable. And if, after years of earnest, 
kindly, faithful, and patient trial, all means fail to ac- 
complish the hoped-for and hopeful amendment of the 
hardened convict, what then ? Having served out a 
certain term of imprisonment in sullen obstinacy or 
with increasing irritation of malice against society — 
for if he has not been made better by his incarcera- 
tion, he has probably been made worse, — shall he be 
forthwith discharged upon the community to renew his 
career of crime and iniquity? What folly or incon- 
sistency could be greater ? Let those, therefore, who 
so readily set convicts down as irreclaimable, remem- 
ber that if such be the fact, then the only reasonable 
course to pursue with them is, either to put them to 
death and be rid of them, or to keep them under 
restraint as long as they live, and that without 
wasting the slightest thought or effort for their re- 
formation. If we shrink from thus summarily deciding 
their destiny for time and eternity, either by taking 
their lives or by shutting them up in the dungeon 
of despair, what remains but that — leaving a ray of 
hope to penetrate to the mind of the convict, which we 
ourselves may fail to perceive — we should keep him in 
restraint, not until he shall die, but until he shall be 
reformed ; and then faithfully use all possible means 
for his reformation as long as his incarceration lasts ? 
At all events, such a convict should not be released 
until he is reformed. To suppose that his imprison- 
ment, without such a result, is going to deter him or 
others from the commission of crime in the future, is 
one of the greatest and strangest of mistakes. For 
himself, such a released convict may have become more 



154 PRISON ECONOMY. 

cunning, but will not be less persistent in his career of 
crime ; and by his busy and crafty efforts, and bravado 
of heroism, he will do incomparably more to incite and 
encourage and train others in similar courses, than all 
that his temporary incarceration will do to deter them. 
Let us not be too ready to pronounce any criminals 
absolutely incorrigible, until we have made a fair trial 
for their reformation ; or, if we really have such in- 
corrigibles on hand, let us by no means turn them 
loose again to prey upon society. 

The proper view of the case is that all convicts are 
the wards of the state, and when they are discharged 
are to be discharged better than they came, prepared 
to be good citizens. To this end they must be in- 
structed, and the state having deprived them of their 
liberty, and assumed the control of them to herself, is 
morally bound to give them such instruction as is 
fitted and needed to attain that end. Such instruction 

i. Will instil and enforce good principles, the great- 
est need of all. 

2. Will awaken the hope of something better to be 
attained in the future. 

3. Will give birth to a sentiment of self-respect, — a 
feeling in the convict's mind that, after all, there is 
something in him too precious to degrade and lose, — a 
feeling which is one of the mightiest levers of moral 
and social elevation. 

4. Will furnish or increase the power of honest self- 
support after his release. 



PRISON ECONOMY. , 1 55 

The subjects of such instruction will be found — 

1. In some trade or handicraft, if needed. 

2. In the elements of learning ; in reading, writing, 
&c, if needed. 

3. In further intellectual training and employment, 
as there may be a capacity and a readiness for it. 

4. In habits of economy and of good morals. 

5. In religion ; which alone must furnish the funda- 
mental and crowning motives for a reformed and useful 
life. 

The method of instruction must be adapted to the 
peculiar case we have to deal with. It is not children 
but adults that are to be taught ; it is with the pervert- 
ed minds of criminals and not with the ingenuous minds 
of virtuous men that we have to do ; our lessons are 
addressed to persons under restraint and not to free 
men. Under such circumstances the ordinary methods 
of school instruction must be expected to prove failures; 
prisoners will not perform literary tasks like children. 
Teaching by lectures, too, cannot be successfully used 
without many special cautions and modifications. We 
must be prepared in any event for unusual and extreme 
trials of patience. Our methods must be largely in- 
formal and different for different cases ; there must be 
a vast deal of labor in detail, of individual, personal 
effort. And especially must the method of instruction 
vary according to the progressive stages of general 



1 5 6 PRISON E CONOMY. 

improvement, and to the degree of confidence which may 
already be reposed in the different classes of prisoners. 
No particular rules of method, therefore, can be laid 
down. We can only say that, while ordinary scholastic 
methods are mostly out of place, a person of good sense 
and discretion, of kind feelings and patient temper, 
penetrated with a deep interest in the personal welfare 
of the convicts, and possessed with an earnest faith in 
his work, an assurance and a determination that it shall 
succeed, such a person will not be long in finding the 
true method, and cannot fail in the use of it. The spirit 
is everything, here, as an element of success. 

We must again repeat that such kindly reformatory 
instruction is not at all incompatible with the idea of 
restraint or punishment. It leaves that punishment 
and restraint just as they were ; it is itself based upon 
them as its own necessary condition ; and one of its 
greatest lessons is to impress upon the mind and 
conscience of the convict the justice of his penalty. 
Nor is such instruction incompatible with the fullest 
deterring power of punishment; for, if unsuccessful, 
that punishment should still be continued ; it is only 
when the instruction is successful and ends in the con- 
vict's reformation, that he is released. And surely 
nothing could more effectually deter the criminally dis- 
posed from the commission of crime than the practical 
assurance that in case of its commission, he will be 
placed under penal restraint from which there is no 
release until, by a course of instruction and discipline 
accompanying it, he is transformed into a virtuous man 
and fitted for the duties of free society. 

The particular principle of instruction, as well as the 



PRISON ECONOMY. , 1 57 

general principle of reformation — and the two run into 
each other as elements of prison discipline — has been 
already recognized by the statutes of this Common- 
wealth. 

The statute in regard both to jails and penitentiaries 
requires an annual report to be rendered as to " what 
provision is made for the instruction of prisoners in 
such penitentiary or jail." The statute already cited, 
relating to the duties of the matron in the Philadelphia 
County Prison, recognizes and enjoins the duty of 
giving to prisoners " such instruction as may tend to 
their reformation, and to render them useful members 
of society." In the penitentiaries the statute estab- 
lishes the distinct office of " religious instructor ; " and 
we repeat its declaration, that " it shall be his duty to 
attend to the moral and religious instruction of the 
convicts, in such a manner as to make their confine- 
ment, as far as possible, a means of their reformation, 
so that when restored to their liberty, they may prove 
honest, industrious, and useful members of society." 

With such principles avowed, what is needed is a 
faithful and thorough enforcement of the existing law, 
with such an enlargement of the statutory provisions, 
such an increase of appliances, such improvements of 
method, and such a consistent, systematic, and perse- 
vering working out of the whole scheme, as shall 
not leave it a mere barren excrescence, but shall secure 
to it that degree of success which we have reason 
to expect, and which the public good imperatively 
requires. 



158 PRISON ECONOMY. 

IV. KIND TREATMENT OF CONVICTS. 

This is due from officials, and is commonly accorded, 
even to prisoners guilty of the most shocking crimes 
and condemned to suffer the severest punishment, and 
even in the very act of inflicting upon such persons the 
extreme penalty of the law. There are none of us 
who would not be scandalized at the conduct of any 
warden or jailor or sheriff or other officer, were he 
wantonly to indulge in any violent or taunting acts or 
words towards such a convict under such circumstances, 
or in any harsh or opprobrious treatment, one hair's 
breadth beyond the strict requirements of the law and 
the sentence of the court. This is sufficient to show 
that kind and humane treatment on the part of officials 
is perfectly compatible with the infliction of condign 
punishment. 

It is a great mistake to suppose that when a man 
has been condemned to imprisonment for his crimes, 
his jailor is required to carry out the analogy of the 
lazv, by the most unfeeling, rigorous, and contumelious 
treatment ; that he is conscientiously bound to shut up 
his bowels of compassion, if he has any ; to abstain 
from any kindly personal interest in the convict, from 
all the amenities, courtesies, and charities of human 
intercourse, and, instead of recognizing in his ward a 
fellow-man, to hold him at a distance as a detestable 
outcast, a venomous viper, or a malignant fiend. The 
truth is, the law neither requires nor sanctions any 
such duties by way of analogy, any such discretionary 
and arbitrary inflictions, or methods of re-enforcing its 
own inflictions. It prescribes the precise punishment 



PRISON E CO NO MY. 1 5 9 

it would impose, and does not authorize any man to 
aggravate it by " one jot or tittle." The wardens and 
keepers of prisons are no more to add, directly or in- 
directly, properly or constructively, in kind or degree, 
to the punishment denounced by the law, than to 
release from it or relax its severity ; and any unneces- 
sary exercise of acerbity or rigor in the mode of 
administration, any unfeeling exhibition of scorn or 
contempt, is as much an addition to the punishment as 
an increase of its term would be. 

Nor, on the other hand, are prison-keepers mere 
heartless or soulless machines, to execute with mechani- 
cal precision the punishment imposed; but they are 
moral agents, human beings, of like passions with those 
placed under their charge, and it is intended by law 
that they should, by all means, retain and not put off 
this character, for they are to represent, not so much 
the majesty or the severity, as the spirit of the state in 
punishing, and this is a spirit of kindness and good- 
will, not of vindictiveness or contempt or unfeeling 
cruelty. The punishment is necessary and must be 
inflicted — inflicted in its full measure and rigor, yet 
more in sorrow than in anger, and with a manifest 
desire, not to degrade and crush, but to encourage, 
elevate, and save. 

The evil consequences of the harsh and unfeeling 
treatment of prisoners can scarcely be exaggerated. 
By it every movement towards good in them is re- 
pressed, and everything that is bad in them is excited 
and provoked to its fullest intensity. At best they are 
cowed down and lose the last remnants of manly 
aspiration which crime had left in their bosoms. Their 



160 PI? I SON ECONOMY. 

worst passions are kept in exercise or only under 
sullen constraint, and it will be well if through constant 
irritation, and the pent-up accumulation of revengeful 
feelings, the discontent with society and with them- 
selves, with which they entered the prison, is not 
changed to a fixed and inveterate malignity or despe- 
ration before their release ; so that they will be dis- 
charged upon the community hardened, infuriated, 
and intensified in wicked purposes, to pursue with 
tenfold earnestness their career of vice and crime. 
Thus our prisons become gymnasia and seminaries 
for the most thorough discipline and development of 
criminal character. Thus " punishment hardens." 

It may be said that the crushing and unmitigated 
punishment thus inflicted, with all these circumstances 
of contumely, opprobrium, of repellent scorn and 
unfeeling rigor, of cruel and insolent asperity, will 
be the more fearful example to deter others from the 
commission of crime. But is that punishment likely to 
deter others from crime, which does not deter him who 
suffers it ? that punishment which rather confirms and 
hardens him in wickedness ? If so, it must be because 
those others are more afraid of becoming confirmed 
and thorough-bred criminals than they are of the pun- 
ishment; and thus our simplest plan would be to make 
every criminal that should fall into our hands as bad as 
possible in the shortest way, and then hold up the re- 
sult as an example to frighten others from entering 
upon a course which should lead to such an end ; 
somewhat as the ancient Spartans are said to have 
made their slaves drunk that the degrading spectacle 
might deter their children from intoxication. But then 



PRISON ECONOMY. 161 

who would be responsible for the education of those 
adepts and inveterates in crime ? The state cannot 
afford to incur such a responsibility, especially since in- 
curring it would, according to the known principles of 
human nature, infallibly fail of the ulterior end referred 
to. Such a punishment, with such a result, would 
deter nobody from crime. Both duty and interest 
equally and imperatively require that the state should, 
if possible, secure the reformation of the criminals 
whom it punishes. 

But if reformation is to be made at all an end of 
prison discipline, humane treatment, a spirit of kind- 
ness and sympathy towards the convicts, the practical 
manifestation of a real personal interest in them and 
their improvement, is the essential condition, the very 
key to any effectual scheme for that purpose. Without 
it, all other appliances and contrivances will be in vain ; 
success is impossible. Whatever other qualifications a 
prison-keeper may have, he is unfit for his place unless 
he possesses a genuine kindliness of nature, a spirit of 
compassionate sympathy, faith in humanity, a profound 
respect and regard for man as man, however fallen and 
degraded, an earnest, patient, indomitable purpose to 
reclaim and raise the wretched and guilty outcasts com- 
mitted to his care. The precise point is to rekindle 
the dormant spark of humanity in the breast of the 
criminal, to develop a spirit of manliness and of human 
kindness ; and to this end he must be treated with hu- 
man kindness, and his manhood must be recognized. 

The want of proper interest in the prisoners com- 
mitted to their charge, if not so great a fault as posi- 
tively cruel treatment, is a much more general defect, 



1 62 PRISON ECONOMY. 

and one, therefore, which may practically result in a 
much greater amount of evil. Prisoners probably suf- 
fer more from mere neglect than from harshness or 
personal abuse. The sheriff or the jailor puts the con- 
vict into the cell or the common prison, locks the door 
sees that he is kept safely and is properly fed ; and, for 
the rest, leaves him "to make the best of it." 

Prisoners need positive and kindly attention ; and 
that positive efforts be made for their present well- 
being and their eventual reform. The consciousness 
of this on their part will furnish the strongest support 
in the struggle for their reformation. They are not 
likely to work it out by their own suggestions, or from 
the mere influence of detention. 

Criminals are not ordinarily beyond the reach of 
good influences, yet criminals in crowds are annually 
discharged through mere flux of time, who are pro- 
claimed altogether incorrigible. But it has been de- 
nied, on the ground of actual experiment, that there 
are any such whatever. The preliminary report of the 
United States Commissioner to the late International 
Prison Congress contains the following just and weighty 
suggestions : — 

" There are many prisoners weak, and some de- 
plorably wicked ; but so long as Divine Providence is 
pleased to retain men in this world of probation at all, 
our right may well be disputed to regard or pronounce 
any to be irreclaimable. Our duty is first to try some 
new method ; to try indeed any and all hopeful methods 
to reclaim them. But under present notions we reject 
all rational means of promoting their recovery ; and, 
then failing (rather the means we do use failing), we 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 63 

quietly pronounce them irreclaimable ; just as an en- 
gineer might do, who, when charged to reduce a strong 
fort, should fling away his trenching tools and pronounce 
it impregnable. In such a case, with whom really lies 
the blame, the prison officers or the prison inmates ? 
And which are the irreclaimable, while such a system 
is persisted in ? It was the opinion of an able writer, 
and equally able as well as successful prison manager, 
that prisoners could be saved to a man by the applica- 
tion of right principles and methods in prison adminis- 
tration. He feared neither bad habits nor any other 
difficulties. He believed that while life and sanity are 
spared, recovery is always possible, if properly sought. 
There is infinite elasticity in the human mind if its fac- 
ulties are placed in healthful action, and neither dis- 
eased by maltreatment nor locked up in the torpor of 
a living grave." 

We have the assurance of this same prison manager 
that his remarkable success was not the mere result of 
peculiar personal qualities : — " My task," says he, "was 
not really as difficult as it appeared. I was working 
with nature and not against her, as all other prison 
systems do. I was endeavoring to cherish, and yet 
direct and regulate, those cravings for amelioration of 
position, which almost all possess in some degree, and 
which are often strongest in those otherwise most 
abused. Under the guidance of right principles, they 
rose easily to order and exertion. I did not neglect 
the object of punishment in my various arrangements, 
but I sought it in the limits assigned alike by the letter 
and spirit of the law, not by excesses of authority be- 
yond them. The law imposes imprisonment and hard 



1 64 PRISON ECONOMY. 

labor, and these, in the fullest sense of the words, my 
men endured. Every one of them performed his 
government task," and, besides, his other voluntary 
labor as he could catch opportunity. " But he was 
saved, as far as I could save him, from unnecessary 
humiliation, and encouraged to look to his own steady 
efforts for ultimate liberation and improved position. 
And this — not the efforts of an individual, zealous as 
they certainly were — was the real secret of success." 

Such are the views of the most intelligent, experi- 
enced, and close observers of prison discipline, in ref- 
erence to its existing deficiencies, and the proper 
principles and methods of reform. Such are the pre- 
vailing tendencies of opinion among the most thought- 
ful men. Such are the results at which our advancing 
civilization evidently aims, and which it will eventually — 
and that at no distant period — accomplish. That is 
to say, the attempt will be made, and, if made, there 
can be no doubt of a reasonable degree of success. 
Absolute success may not be attainable, and should 
neither be promised nor expected. 

The best and wisest of prison-keepers will still be 
imperfect intellectually and morally ; and the best and 
wisest are but few. Even if they were many and, 
besides, were perfect, some criminals might not be 
saved by their treatment, however kind and judicious. 
We need not hold that there are absolutely no " incor- 
rigibles." But more will be reformed in this way than 
in any other. 

The experiment has been repeatedly tried by Maco- 
nochie, by Crofton, and many others ; and always with 
the most encouraging degree of success. That per- 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 65 

feet success is unlikely is no objection to any plan for 
the government or improvement of mankind. If it 
were, then one thing is plain : our whole cumbrous 
system and expensive machinery of penal jurispru- 
dence should be instantly and utterly abolished ; for it 
is patent and notorious that it has ever fallen far short 
of perfect success. Legal penalties have never swept 
away crime from human society ; but we do not, there- 
fore, propose their abolition. They may have done 
something towards the desired end. We propose an 
improvement of their mode of administration, whereby 
they would accomplish vastly more. But, after all, 
much will undoubtedly remain unaccomplished ; much 
that will lie quite beyond the power and ingenuity of 
man to effect. Let us do what we can. 

V. CLASSIFICATION OF PRISONERS. 

Classification is not needed so long and so far as the 
separate system of confinement is absolutely adhered 
to. Each prisoner is then dealt with by himself, and 
on his own separate merits. But separate or solitary 
confinement has never been practically introduced, nor, 
so far as we know, has it ever been, even in theory, 
seriously proposed, for all persons under penal re- 
straint, whatever their sex, ag-e, or degree of crimi- 
nality. Houses of correction for adults, and houses of 
refuge for juvenile offenders, have always been ar- 
ranged on a different principle. Usually, convicts 
confined for minor offenses and for shorter periods are 
allowed more or less of companionship ; and if so, the 
sexes are separated, or ought to be. Some degree of 



1 66 PRISON ECONOMY. 

classification, therefore, seems to have been generally 
admitted to be proper and necessary. In the Western 
Penitentiary of this State, the separate system is by 
law allowed to be modified. The inspectors of the 
Philadelphia County Prison, in their last report, tell us 
that "the separate system, once the pride of Pennsyl- 
vania, has been long abandoned in every department 
of the prison, and even in the convict corridors two, 
three, and even four prisoners are placed together 
in a single cell." The history of the past and the 
present state of facts compel us to assume that the 
separate system will not, in the future, be thoroughly 
and universally carried out in this State. And if not, 
the classification of prisoners becomes a matter of most 
serious moment. Taking things as they are, its wider 
application would, in our judgment, be productive of 
the most important and beneficial consequences. From 
this point of view we propose to pursue the discussion 
of the subject — that is to say, taking things as they are, 
and supposing that the separate system will not be uni- 
versally and thoroughly carried out. 

Not a word need be said to show the unutterable 
absurdity and the terrible consequences of the free 
mingling together of all sorts of prisoners, or of thrust- 
ing them, indiscriminately, by the couple or the half 
dozen, into the same cell. Nothing could be more 
utterly subversive of all the purposes of punishment, 
whether exemplary or reformatory. No better con- 
trivance could be invented for giving vice the fullest 
opportunity for fermenting and festering and propa- 
gating its contagion. Prisons thus become training- 
schools for crime. As far as reformation is concerned, 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 67 

such prisons are like hospitals in which all sorts of pa- 
tients, with all sorts of diseases, from* the plague, the 
small-pox, the cholera, the typhus and yellow fever, 
down to the rheumatism, asthma, catarrh, gout, or dys- 
pepsia, should be indiscriminately huddled together in 
the same wards, and even in the same cots. 

Leaving aside, therefore, this extreme case of the 
neglect of classification, which finds no defenders, we 
proceed to say that this same neglect is the occasion of 
many and capital defects in the "congregate system" of 
prison discipline, as it ordinarily exists, even under its 
best methods of management, and under the most fa- 
vorable circumstances. To remedy these defects, not 
only must the labor of the convicts be made voluntary, 
instead of being enforced by the lash, but their classifi- 
cation must be carried out so far that the members of 
the several parties or companies or squads shall be 
left, and safely left, to very great, if not perfect, free- 
dom of intercourse, as in ordinary social occupation. 

Such a classification has sometimes been alleeed to 
be impossible consistently with the purpose of refor- 
mation. By no one has the objection been placed in a 
stronger light than by Mr. Livingston. His views are 
thus expressed : — 

"To remedy this evil (/. e., the corrupting conse- 
quences of indiscriminate intercourse), what is called 
classification was first resorted to ; first, the young 
were separated from the old ; then the analogous divi- 
sion was made between the novice and the practiced 
offender. Further sub-divisions were found indispen- 
sable, in proportion as it was discovered that in each 
of these classes would be found individuals of different 



1 68 PRISON E CONOMY. 

degrees of depravity, and, of course, corruptors, and 
those ready to receive their lessons. Accordingly, 
classes were multiplied, until, in some prisons in Eng- 
land, we find them amounting to fifteen or more. But 
all this while the evident truths seemed not to have 
had proper force : First, that moral guilt cannot always 
be discovered, and, if discovered, so nicely appreciated 
as to assign to each one infected with it its compara- 
tive place in the scale ; and that, if it could be so dis- 
covered [appreciated], it would be found that no two 
would be found contaminated in the same degree. 
Secondly, that if these difficulties could be surmounted, 
and a class could be formed of individuals who had 
advanced exactly to the same point, not only of offense 
but of moral depravity, still their association would 
produce a further progress in both, just as sparks pro- 
duce a flame when brought together, which, separated, 
would be extinguished and die. It is not in human 
nature for the mind to be stationary. It must pro- 
gress in virtue or in vice. Nothing promotes this 
progress so much as the emulation created by society; 
and from the nature of the society will it receive its 
direction. Every association of convicts, then, that 
can be formed, will, in a greater or less degree, per- 
vert, but will never reform, those of which it is com- 
posed ; and we are brought to the irresistible conclu- 
sion that classification once admitted to be useful, it is 
so in an inverse proportion to the numbers of which 
each class is composed, and is not perfect until we 
come to the point at which it loses its name and nature 
in the complete separation of individuals. We come, 
then, to the conclusion that each convict is to be sepa- 
rated from his fellows." (Page 309.) 



PRISON E CONOMY. 1 69 

But even Mr. Livingston seems elsewhere to modify 
this absolute rejection of the principle of classification, 
and to admit the association of prisoners with very 
cautious provisions. We have already seen that he 
proposes classes of not more than ten for working and 
receiving instruction together. Again he says: — " I dis- 
card the use of the lash, therefore, being firmly con- 
vinced that, as an instrument of punishment, it is not 
only defective and dangerous, but that it cannot be 
brought to produce that reformation which is one of 
the essential parts of my plan. But social labor, 
whether general or in classes, — if these classes are at all 
numerous [i. e., if each is numerous in individuals], — 
cannot be carried on without it, unless the security 
and order of the prison be put to hazard. Social labor, 
therefore, must be abandoned, or so modified and ad- 
mitted with such precautions as to render this anomaly 
[the use of the lash] unnecessary." (Page 334.) 

That these modifications and precautions can be in- 
troduced has been demonstrated by successfel experi- 
ment. The importance of the end to be attained by 
adopting them, and of adopting them in order to attain 
that end, can scarcely be over-estimated. The difficul- 
ties and the cost may be great, but success will abund- 
antly repay the expenditure. Those who have tried 
the experiment also triumphantly defend their plan, 
even on general and theoretic grounds. 

It must be plain, on a little reflection, that the oppo- 
site plan necessarily leads to absolutely " separate " or 
solitary confinement or segregation, through the whole 
term of imprisojiment; for the other alternative — the 
indiscrimifiate association of the prisoners for all or 



170 PRISON ECONOMY. 

any of the time, is out of the question. Such a plan, 
therefore, is inconsistent with the non-application of such 
confinement to less gross offenders, or to those sen- 
tenced to shorter periods of incarceration, as in houses 
of correction or workhouses, or even to juvenile con- 
victs, provided the idea of reformation in those cases 
of greater criminality is admitted at all, for, if these 
last are ever reformed, they must reach reformation 
gradually, and must, therefore, before it is complete, 
reach stages of advancement in which they can be 
trusted with mutual companionship, as well as those 
whose original criminality was less. 

But if criminals — even the grossest offenders, the 
most corrupt and desperate — are to be reformed and 
discharged at all, they must be so reformed as to be 
prepared to live, and to live safely, in society. They 
must be fitted for society, its motives, its processes, its 
trials, and its temptations. Can they be so fitted 
wholly outside of these tentative and experimental 
influences ? Certainly solitary or separate confine- 
ment should have its place at the beginning, and as 
much of it as is thought necessary in each case. It is 
invaluable to secure a period for serious reflection and 
quiet instruction, and for preparing the prisoner to 
accept, with further instruction, society and even labor 
and all reformatory agencies, as great benefits and 
privileges. It may also have an appropriate use for 
temporary punishment afterwards, instead of resorting 
to the lash, or other degrading or violent remedies. 
If, by itself, it really succeeds in reforming the crimi- 
nal, so as to be prepared for his full discharge at once 
into society at large, he will certainly be prepared, with 



PRISON ECONOMY. I 7 1 

entire safety to himself and others, to be transferred 
to the system of social discipline here suggested. If 
he leaves the solitary cell with good resolutions, in- 
deed, but with resolutions not sufficiently strengthened 
by practical trial, that system will need to be added to 
to confirm and complete the work already begun. In 
any event, the social system is important to be applied 
as a test, before the hopefully-reformed convict receives 
his full discharge. 

It will be understood, as a matter of course, that the 
classification here recommended must not be made on 
an arbitrary basis, as of age, length of the term of im- 
prisonment or portion of that term elapsed, supposed 
criminality, identity, or similarity of temperament, or 
the like. 

" Like all other exercises of mere authority, authori- 
tative classification will prove a pure delusion ; and in 
fact very few practical men, even now, are not ready 
to pronounce it such. There is no rule by which to 
regulate it. If by offense, this is the mere accident of 
conviction ; if by age, the youngest criminals, born and 
cradled in sin, are very often the most corrupt ; if by 
supposed similarity of temper or antecedent character, 
no one can certainly pronounce on this, and men are 
as often and oftener improved by associating with their 
opposites as with those who resemble them. It is im- 
possible to attain real benefit by such means. One 
general difference between prisoners at the same time 
does exist, which it will be important, on many occa- 
sions, to keep in view, but not with the aim of sepa- 
rating them ; it is this : — The difference between men 
who have erred from having more than an average 



I 7 2 PRISON E CONOMY. 

amount of physical energy, and men who have sinned 
from having less than an average of moral principle. 
The treatment of the two should very considerably dif- 
fer, and it might not be impossible or unwise to subject 
this to regulation." The classification, which alone this 
writer approves, is based on character, conduct, and 
merit, as shown in the daily routine of prison life. 

Such a classification undoubtedly requires, on the 
part of the prison managers and keepers, a great share 
of knowledge of human nature, of good judgment and 
sound discretion, a habit of close observation and con- 
stant watchfulness, patient and indefatigable effort, and a 
deep, whole-souled, devoted interest in the work in hand. 

The hypocrisy of criminals is proverbial, and must 
be carefully guarded against. Meanwhile this social 
system is one of the best tests that can be applied to 
the evil, and, if the evil exists, will infallibly lead to its 
seasonable exposure. 

To render this scheme of classification systematic, 
self-working, and not merely discretionary or perhaps 
capricious, the " mark system," as it has been called, 
may be made an important accessory. The working 
and character of this system will be more fully con- 
sidered further on. 

But, with the exercise of all possible discretion and de- 
votion, and with the use of all possible helps, it must be 
expected that mistakes will sometimes be made ; it will 
sometimes be necessary to retrace steps that have been 
taken, and even ultimate failure will sometimes ensue. 
But these means will accomplish what can be accom- 
plished; they will accomplish much; and we have no right 
to rest satisfied until these have been tried to the fullest 



PRISON E CONOMY. 1 7 3 

possible extent. The experiment has been made by Cap- 
tain Maconochie, to whose suggestions we have already 
referred, and by others ; and wherever it has been fairly 
and faithfully tried, it has proved eminently successful. 

VI. SELECTION AND TRAINING OF PRISON-KEEPERS. 

Nothing is so important in prison economy as the 
right spirit and style of administration : to it every- 
thing else is subordinate ; without it everything else is 
unavailing, — whether structure of prisons, structure or 
arrangement of cells, ventilation, diet, labor, instruc- 
tion, separate system, or whatever else, — all may be 
spoiled by a wrong method of treatment. Everything, 
therefore, hinges upon the character of the wardens or 
keepers. 

It may be thought an insuperable objection to the 
plan thus far developed, that the qualifications indicated 
as requisite in these functionaries are quite extraordi- 
nary and exceptional ; in short, that enough of such 
men cannot be had. It may be said that a Macono- 
chie, a Montesinos, a Crofton, or a Pilsbury may indeed 
accomplish wonderful effects in the way of reforming 
criminals, or rendering them orderly or industrious, by 
personal and moral influences, but that it is a mere 
Utopia to think that such a plan can be carried out as 
a general system. The genius, the magnetic power, 
the extraordinary personal qualities cannot be made to 
order, or collected in sufficient quantities to meet the 
demand. This may be said, plausibly said, and so men 
may turn away quite self-satisfied, as if the whole ques- 
tion had thus been settled and foreclosed, and prison 



174 PRISON ECONOMY. 

discipline must be left to go on in the future substan- 
tially as it has gone on in the past. " The whole plan 
is a mere theory — a philanthropic dream," was the first 
cry. It was thereupon put to the test of experiment, 
and succeeded, and then we are told — "ah, but the 
men who tried it were extraordinary men, and one 
swallow does not make a summer." Let the experi- 
ment, we reply, be faithfully and earnestly continued ; 
let the attempt be made to find more such men; let 
this too be tested by trial, and they will be found. 
What man has done, man can do ; and where there's 
a will there's a way. These are the true mottoes for 
all good undertakings. 

What we have to do is, first, to make up our minds 
what are the proper qualifications for the keepers and 
managers of prisons, what are the qualifications which 
the public service and the highest ends of prison econo- 
my require, and then with that degree of earnestness 
and diligence which the case demands to proceed to 
find and judiciously select those who approach nearest 
to the standard. Perfection, of course, is not to be 
attained, and, therefore, should neither be demanded 
nor expected. But surely it does not follow from this 
that it is reasonable to proceed without any standard 
or system, at pure hap-hazard, and with no effort at 
discrimination, flattering ourselves, and endeavoring 
to persuade the community, that such are the difficulties 
of the case we and they must be content with what- 
ever material may chance to fall in our way. 

In making the selection there is one point which 
must be laid down as absolutely essential ; no political 
influence must be allowed to sway or interfere in the 



PRISON E CO NO MY. I 7 5 

slightest degree to impede or determine the choice. It 
should be a matter of religion with all parties to exclude 
such influence altogether from the case. Political con- 
siderations have no more proper bearing upon this 
function than they have upon that of a professor of 
mathematics. Moreover, no men who have been 
elected or appointed for quite different functions should 
be suffered ex officio to be employed in this. County 
sheriffs, for example, are no more likely to be fitted 
for this office, or for determining who possess the 
proper qualifications for it, and, perhaps, on the whole, 
are less likely to be so fitted, than the general aver- 
age of intelligent men. And yet the sheriffs of the 
several , counties have, by law, the exclusive control 
of almost all the county jails or prisons, holding in 
their hands the appointment of all the keepers and 
under officers, which appointments they have the 
opportunity, and are under the temptation, to dis- 
tribute to themselves or their friends, as petty political 
prizes, or as a matter of private and family patronage. 
While such a system is allowed to continue, what right 
have we to expect that the keepers of such prisons 
should have the spirit of a Howard, or emulate the 
example or exhibit the tact and talent of a Pilsbury 
or a Crofton ? If we cannot expect this, is it because 
of the inherent difficulty of the case, or because of 
the egregious and stupendous folly of the method we 
persist in applying to it ? 

This is a special function and requires special apti- 
tudes of mind and qualities of character ; and if enough 
men fitted for it by nature, or by their own efforts 
and experience, cannot be found, provision should be 
made for the special training of others. 



176 PRISON ECONOMY. 

Considering the direct and important bearing of this 
business upon the public weal, what good reason can 
be given why men should not be especially trained for 
this function, in a sort of normal institute, as well as for 
the function of school teachers ? Indeed, as there is a 
best way of managing prisons and prisoners, and as it 
is not only a peculiar, but a very complex and intricate 
business, involving most important principles of mental 
and moral philosophy, as well as infinite practical de- 
tails, it is a serious question whether any one should 
undertake so delicate and responsible a task without 
a special training for it. The distinguished warden of 
the Albany Penitentiary, to whom allusion has several 
times been already made, undoubtedly owes much of 
his remarkable power of efficiently working a prison — 
and that in spite of grave defects of general principles 
in his system — to the training he received from his 
father and to his own life-long experience. Mr. Pils- 
bury and other men of similar ability and knowledge 
of their profession could in no way turn their powers 
and acquirements to better account or make them in a 
higher degree subservient to the public good than by 
training and instructing others who may succeed them 
in the exercise of their art, and thus bequeathing to 
posterity the secret they have mastered. And by 
concentrating upon such an institution the reflection, 
experience, and wisdom of the country in this depart- 
ment, further secrets would be discovered and the art 
would be developed as well as propagated. We ven- 
ture to recommend the establishment of such a school 
by State authority, with such a system of regulations 
in regard to examinations, to the choice of prison 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 77 

wardens and keepers and to their systematic promo- 
tion, upon experience, from lower to higher grades and 
from less to more responsible positions, as will speedily 
secure the enjoyment of its benefits to all the jails and 
penitentiaries in the Commonwealth. 

The dismissal of prison-keepers should not be left to 
be determined solely upon specific charges of miscon- 
duct or ill-treatment, good reasons though these are ; 
but the proportion of the convicts discharged from the 
care of each, who should prove to be reformed or 
otherwise, or who should be re-convicted for crime, 
should be ascertained by careful statistics ; and, the 
cases having been carefully considered, in connection 
with all the circumstances, incompetent or unsuccessful 
keepers should be forthwith dismissed. 

There is one object of the highest moment, to facili- 
tate the accomplishment of which the training-school 
would most powerfully contribute, and that is the ele- 
vation of the position of prison-keepers in the social 
scale and in the public regard. This profession should 
be as honorable, and should be made to be held as re- 
spectable, in general esteem, as that of school teachers 
or college professors, or superintendents of asylums 
for the insane or the blind. In the nature of the case, 
there is no reason why it should not be so. The reason 
why it is not so regarded is twofold : first, the want of 
training and culture and high character in so many who 
exercise the profession, the prevalent notion that men 
of mere ordinary or inferior abilities and qualities are 
quite equal to this work ; but secondly and chiefly, it 
is because the business of a prison-keeper is supposed 
to be, and, hitherto, to a large extent, has been, merely 



1 78 PRISON E CONOMY. 

to secure and superintend the infliction of punish- 
ment — an office of unfeeling coldness and sternness, 
of heartlessness and cruelty ; an office calling for no 
exercise of the higher and kindlier human affections, 
but rather requiring their repression. Such an office 
cannot command the sympathy or respect of mankind. 
It is not in human nature to look upon it otherwise 
than with repugnance and a recoil of disgust, — the 
human heart can apprehend no elements of honor in 
it. Let us recognize and weigh well this verdict of 
humanity. Let us be thankful that, though led astray 
by the principles of a mistaken policy, our prison econ- 
omy is sunk so low, yet our common human nature is 
not sunk so low with it as to regard it with compla- 
cency or reverence it with honor, but instinctively 
repudiates it with a sense of loathing. 

But let our prisons be made and looked upon as 
schools for reformation rather than dungeons of pun- 
ishment, as institutions for raising the fallen victims of 
vice, instead of crushing and trampling them deeper 
into the earth ; and let the managers and governors of 
such penitentiaries receive a thorough culture and train- 
ing for such an office, and they will soon come to be 
regarded as one of the most unselfish, high-minded, 
honorable, and elevated classes of human society. So 
ought they to be regarded. 

VII. COMMUTATION, OR THE SUBSTITUTION OF REFORMA- 
TION FOR LAPSE OF TIME, AS THE CONDITION OF DIS- 
CHARGE. 

All the punishments of criminal jurisprudence being- 
imposed for the good of society, within the limits of 



PRISON ECONOMY. I 79 

justice and under the guidance of humanity, — as we 
trust has already been shown, — reformation must be 
included among the ends of punishment, and, moreover, 
its inclusion must be an important condition of the 
right and complete accomplishment of any other proper 
ends. It must, therefore, be the highest end of all. It 
is not denied that punishment should have reference to 
the past ; but we have no right to punish our fellow- 
men for the past in utter and heartless neglect of their 
future. It is not denied that punishment should be 
inflicted as a vindication of justice and a deterring ex- 
ample to others ; but it will accomplish these purposes 
only — or, at least, thoroughly accomplish them only — 
on condition of its having a reformatory character. 

If, then, punishment looks to the future ratJicr than 
the past ; if the imprisonment of criminals is for the 
protection of society ratha- than for vengeance upon 
them, it follows that the mere lapse of time is no proper 
measure for prospectively determining the length of its 
continuance. Until the reformation aimed at is accom- 
plished, the same reason exists for the continuance of 
the detention which existed for its beginning. If 
society is to be protected from the further crimes of 
the particular offender, and his imprisonment was 
mainly intended to secure that protection, what is it 
short of folly to dismiss him from that imprisonment 
while he is as ready and able to assume and pursue 
his career of violence or depreciation as when he was 
first incarcerated ? If, by the example of his punish- 
ment, others are to be deterred from similar, or from 
any, crimes, how else could this purpose be more 
effectually accomplished than by their seeing that, if 



1 80 PUIS ON E CONOMY. 

convicted of such crimes, there is no way of their 
escape from perpetual imprisonment, but by giving 
satisfactory evidence, through a severe process of long 
and searching test and trial, of sincere and thorough 
reformation ? Surely nothing could be more effectual 
than this ; but it may be suggested that something 
short of this may accomplish something, or even much, 
in the same direction. But it is doubtful whether any 
punishment of offenders can have much effect in deter- 
ring others from crime, when those offenders are 
released more hardened and defiant than they were 
before ; and still more doubtful whether any punish- 
ment can, on the whole, diminish the general amount, 
or check in the community the growth, of crime, unless, 
by that punishment, the offenders are absolutely pre- 
vented from returning to their old courses and their 
old associates. 

The true plan, therefore, would seem to be, either 
the imposition of much longer time-sentences than the 
statutes now impose, with greatly increased opportuni- 
ties to secure a commutation; or, what is more consis- 
tent in principle, the conditioning of every discharge 
from prison — at least in cases of felony or gross 
offenses — simply and absolutely upon good conduct 
and evidence of repentance and reformation. 

In determining the weight of this evidence, the 
character and history of the parties previous to their 
incarceration should be taken into the account ; and 
the estimation of good conduct should not depend 
simply upon orderly behavior, obedience to prison 
regulations, and the punctual performance of imposed 
tasks, but much more upon such habits of voluntary 



PRISON ECONOMY. 181 

and provident industry, and such constant faithfulness, 
under circumstances of increasing exposure and temp- 
tation, as may guarantee a preparation of character 
for the labors, burdens, and trials of free life in actual 
society. 

The idea of reformatory punishment is apt to be 
thought quite too mild and gentle for dealing with the 
rough and reckless characters of the mass of depraved 
and hardened criminals ; it is apt to be dismissed with 
a quiet sneer as an unstatesmanlike and unpractial 
Utopia of men, very kind and humane, but very ignor- 
ant of human nature. It would not be surprising, how- 
ever, if now, upon a full development of the idea, its 
opponents should entirely change their tune, and 
charge it with an excessive and intolerable severity — 
a severity quite inconsistent with the rights and privi- 
leges of the free citizens of a free state. 

We must defend it, therefore, against this other 
charge ; and we say that such severity is just that 
which offends against no principle of justice, humanity, 
charity, or religion ; and which, at the same time, is 
needed for the full protection of society against the 
encroachments of the dangerous classes. 

As the population multiplies and cities are thronged, 
as civilization advances and wealth increases, — and 
poverty, too, — crime, unless checked by special means, 
will also increase in a still greater ratio ; roughs and 
rowdies and desperadoes, gamblers, swindlers, and 
knaves, thieves and pickpockets, garroters and robbers, 
murderers and assassins, will multiply apace, until the 
courts are overwhelmed and the prisons crowded ; and 
yet the vast army is recruited and filled up- faster than 



182 PAIS ON ECONOMY. 

it is depleted by all the efforts of sheriffs, judges, and 
juries. The continual passing of a few through the 
pains-taking process of arrest, trial, and brief imprison- 
ment, only to return with increased skill and malignity 
as heroic leaders to their old associates, as instructors 
to the host of novices gathered in their absence, will 
never remedy or remove the evil. It is but the labor 
of Sisyphus. When one looks at this immense and 
swelling host of the " dangerous classes," and considers 
how capable they are, in these days of guilds, brother- 
hoods, and associations, of a much more thoroughly 
organized combination than they have yet betrayed, 
one trembles for the future of modern civilization. 
There are only two remedies for the appalling evil, 
and the second is only supplementary to the first. 
These are, first, the universal training of the children 
in knowledge, morals, and religion, including, especi- 
ally, the outcast, vagrant, and neglected classes of 
children ; and, second, insisting upon the reformation 
of all those who are duly convicted of crime before they 
are again let loose upon the community. Both these 
remedies are, in our judgment, imperatively required 
for the public welfare and safety. And if what the 
public safety and welfare require is ever to be enacted 
into a law, it would seem to be when the voice, both 
of justice and humanity, both of rigorous right and of 
gentle charity, joins in the requisition. 

Besides the common demand of reformation in all 
cases, the different degrees of criminality may need to 
be distinguished by a graduation of punishment. 

For this purpose there might be imposed, in the 
original sentence, longer or shorter terms of strict 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 83 

solitary confinement, or of rigorous hard labor ; and it 
might be provided that, in any event, the discharge of 
the prisoner should not take place before the lapse of 
a certain prescribed period of time, and this, especially, 
in the case of re-convictions. 

Short terms of simple imprisonment might still 
be imposed, as the whole punishment, for misde- 
meanors and lesser offenses, without any violation of 
the principle contended for, which applies only to 
crimes in the stricter sense. But persons so impris- 
oned should either have a house of detention entirely 
separate from that of convict felons, or should be 
retained in solitary or separate confinement during 
the whole period of their punishment. 

There is a class of crimes which some may think it 
incongruous to treat under this idea of reformation as 
an absolute condition of discharge : it is the case of 
those persons who are guilty of acts of personal 
violence in sudden brawls or intemperate excitements, 
but who do not belong habitually to what are called the 
"dangerous classes." But we think their cases suffi- 
cently provided for by the foregoing remark, that, in 
estimating the character and standing of convicts, their 
habits and history previous to conviction must be duly 
taken into account ; and, indeed, the scheme of prison 
discipline which is here in view seems to us, in this 
connection, to have a special advantage, to which 
we cannot refrain from directing particular attention. 

Most of the felonious acts just referred to are 
occasioned by habits of ungovernable passion, or of 
intemperance in the use of stimulants. The temp- 
tations of this class of persons are chiefly social, hence 



1 84 PRISON ECONOMY. 

they cannot be presumed fit to be intrusted again 
with the control of themselves in free society until 
they have stood the test of some degree of freedom of 
choice in the companionship of their fellows. The 
remedy must be social. Enforced abstinence, quiet re- 
flection in solitude, theoretic instruction, and good reso- 
lutions, with the removal and absence of all temptation, 
can hardly give sufficient reason to trust in the perma- 
nence of the promised amendment, when the prisoner 
is suddenly liberated from his solitary cell, and returns 
to the actual temptations and trials of social life. 

The scheme suggested would require the progres- 
sive classification of convicts according to their pro- 
gressive and various developments of conduct and 
character — greater privileges and greater degrees of 
freedom being accorded in proportion to their grade 
of advancement, and all to be earned and purchased 
by their own efforts. Such a scheme, of course, re- 
quires, in its managers, close observation and a nice, 
discriminative judgment. To secure the fair and 
proper working of the scheme, leaving as little as pos- 
sible to arbitrary determination and loose general 
judgments, a complete, detailed, and constant record 
of each prisoner's conduct and character from day to 
day should be made and preserved, to be to the prison 
manager what his "log" is to the mariner. This is, 
substantially, what is called the "mark system" a full 
description of which is not here required. 

Nor is it essential that any particular, precisely pre- 
scribed " system " should be adopted. What is essen- 
tial, or, at least, extremely important, is, that some 
detailed daily record should be regularly kept, of every 



PRISON ECONOMY. 185 

prisoner's character and conduct, merits and demerits, 
and of all rewards and punishments. There should be 
some system and some definite record, for the inspection 
of official visitors, for the information and encourage- 
ment of the prisoner, and as a guide and check for the 
prison managers. 

But, after all, a great responsibility must rest upon 
these managers and the inspectors, and what some 
may think an excessive power must be committed to 
their hands — a power no less than that of practically 
determining, by the recorded estimates and judgments, 
the term of imprisonment for every convict. Passion- 
ate severities, favoritism, and other abuses of power, 
must be, by law, guarded against in every possible 
way. The detailed record above mentioned would do 
much as a guide and as a check — a guide to correct 
loose and general impressions ; a check against sud- 
den and passionate judgments. The results in the case 
of discharged prisoners would serve to expose and 
correct over-laxity; and the frequent visits of official 
inspectors would, with the aid of the record of marks 
and the personal examination of the prisoners, be the 
means of detecting any undue severities. 

We have only to add, under this head, that the prin- 
ciple of modifying time-sentences, by allowing the com- 
mutation here advocated, has been already adopted in 
the legislation of this Commonwealth. 

The statute of 1st May, 1861, enacted that " every 
prisoner or convict, sentenced as aforesaid, who shall 
have no such infraction or violation of the said rules 
recorded against him or her during any month of the 
first year of his or her imprisonment, shall be entitled 



1 86 PRISON ECONOMY. 

to a deduction from the term of his or her sentence, 
&c. * * * Provided, That it shall be law- 

ful for the inspectors of said penitentiaries or prisons, 
if any such convicts or persons shall willfully infringe 
or violate any of said rules or regulations, or offend in 
any other way, to strike off the whole or any part of 
the deduction which may have been obtained previous 
to the date of such offense. 

" The said inspectors shall have full power and 
authority to discharge the said criminals, whenever 
they have served out their term of sentence, less the 
number of days to which they are entitled under the 
provisions of this act." 

And then it is further provided that a certificate 
shall be given to such discharged prisoner. This 
act applies alike to county jails and State peniten- 
tiaries. 

What we ask is, that the principle here involved 
should have a much wider, higher, and more consist- 
ent application ; that instead of being the exception 
it should become the rule ; and, instead of the com- 
mutation being based merely upon obedient submission 
to prison regulations, it should be based upon industry, 
diligence, moral conduct, and progress in practical re- 
formation. The greater benefits which would then 
ensue may be judged of by the benefits which have 
followed upon the partial application of the principle. 
In their last report, the inspectors of the Philadelphia 
County Prison testify that " the commutation act, by 
which prisoners, who conduct themselves without charge 
of misconduct, are entitled to a deduction in the terms 
of their sentences, has been in operation in the prison 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 87 

since May, 1870. Its effect upon the discipline of the 
prison has been apparent, and we see no reason to 
doubt that its general reformatory influence has been 
good." 

VIII. INTERMEDIATE PRISONS OR DISCHARGING-HOUSES. 

The reformation of criminals is the object in view ; 
and this object is presumed to be eventually attained. 
The process is in its nature gradual ; and the course of 
progressive classification adapts itself to the advance- 
ment from stage to stage, both recognizing and pro- 
moting it. But something more distinct and decisive 
seems necessary to mark the highest and final stage. 
Those who have reached this point are supposed to be 
already substantially reformed. Like the piece of ord- 
nance before its transfer to actual service, they need 
only a final testing to ascertain whether they will bear 
the strain of free society. They are really in a tran- 
sition state, not quite ready to be trusted with entire 
freedom, and yet not to be treated simply as convicts. 
It seems eminently proper, therefore, that, at this stage, 
they should find themselves in a new atmosphere, sur- 
rounded by new associations, under new circumstances 
of recognized respectability as well as of responsibility, 
where the character of the man should begin quite to 
overshadow and efface that of the convict. For this 
purpose new quarters, quite separate and distinct, both 
in character and in name, from those of the less 
advanced prisoners, would be required. Such quar- 
ters we venture to call "intermediate prisons," or, 
better, perhaps, "discharging-houses." They should be 



1 88 PRISON ECONOMY. 

regarded not so much in the light of prisons as of simple 
reformatories. In them the idea of punishment should 
give place entirely to that hopeful, voluntary amend- 
ment, or confirmation of amendment. Only in case of 
misconduct the right would remain to the superintend- 
ents or controlling managers of a summary remand- 
ing of the offender to the prison proper. 

As the reformation, so the transfer to entire freedom 
would thus be made by degrees. And this last degree 
is a most important preparation for the full discharge. 
We do not propose to suggest the details of arrange- 
ment for these houses or prisons ; they may be greatly 
varied, according to circumstances, and according to 
the personal judgment and peculiar aptitudes of the 
superintendents. The general principles to be carried 
out should be to o-ive much orreater freedom of action 
than in former stages, — perhaps entire freedom within 
certain limits of time, — to manifest much greater per- 
sonal confidence in the men, retaining the feature of 
mutual watch and responsibility, and the absolute re- 
quirement upon all to be at their quarters before a 
certain hour in the evening. 

Some may think it a crushing and final objection to 
any such scheme that, in their opinion, many, if not all, 
the prisoners under such treatment would make their 
escape and disappear. But such an objection is the 
child of despair. It proceeds from an entire want of 
hope that criminals can ever be reformed. For only 
those who are presumed to be substantially reformed — 
whether under the separate or the social system — are 
to be placed in these circumstances and allowed these 
liberties ; and, when placed here, should they all make 



PRISON ECONOMY. f 1 89 

their escape, it would be no worse than if, instead of 
being placed here, they had all been forthwith dis- 
charged. But they will not all escape ; some may ; it 
is to be presumed that some will. Still, we shall retain 
this advantage, that they will be escaped prisoners, and, 
upon arrest, can be restored to their incarceration 
without being arraigned, tried, and convicted for some 
new crime against society. Most of such runaways 
would be arrested. 

If it be thought that, while the fear of such arrest 
and its consequences might be a restraint, yet such 
restraint would, after all, be a sort of compulsion, and 
would not prepare for a state of entire freedom ; we 
answer that such an objection proceeds upon the idea 
that nothing but entire freedom can prepare for entire 
freedom ; it rejects all approximation, and annuls the 
idea of preparation altogether. Whereas, we believe 
that self-control, exercised under such a motive, would 
not only test its own power, but would confirm a habit 
of self-control, with a view to the future, which would 
be one of the most powerful preservatives from a re- 
sumption of criminal courses, after the full discharge 
and restoration to entire freedom. 

It may be thought that this plan would require a 
multiplication of prison establishments, and thus entail 
upon the State a great additional expenditure. But, 
even though this were the case, still, provided the plan 
were liable to no other valid objection, and provided it 
would be productive of the benefits proposed, no such 
petty objection of expense should weigh for a moment 
against them. Such an outlay would be a good invest- 
ment. It would go to prevent the waste of much of 



190 PRISON ECONOMY. 

the other expenditure which crime entails upon the 
State. Penuriousness is often the greatest extrava- 
gance. But no multiplication of prisons need result, 
even temporarily, from the plan proposed, but only a 
special distribution of them ; for, while we should con- 
fidently believe and maintain that, in the long run, it 
would tend to diminish the number of prisoners, it 
would not, even at the first, necessarily increase their 
number ; for prisoners might naturally be transferred 
to these intermediate houses of detention somewhat 
sooner than, without them, it would be thought proper 
to risk their complete discharge. 

As for the current expenses of these establishments, 
our idea is that — with the exception, of course, of the 
sick and the infirm — all prisoners, both here and in the 
former stages of their confinement, but especially here, 
should by their own industry pay for their main- 
tenance. 

Under a judicious management they would not only 
do this, but would rapidly accumulate their reserve 
fund, to be received by them upon their release. As 
a general rule, none would be transferred to this inter- 
mediate position who should not already have earned 
and accumulated such a fund ; and this fund being still 
at risk, and liable to be forfeited for misconduct, would 
be a further pledge for good behavior, as well as a 
guarantee for their current expenses. Here is another 
motive of restraint which some may stigmatize as of 
the nature of compulsion ; but it is the same sort of 
compulsion as that under which all men are called 
upon to act in ordinary life. It is, therefore, most ap- 
propriate as a final preparation to return to that life, 
with its temptations and its responsibilities. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 91 

IX. REFUGES AND OTHER PROVISION FOR DISCHARGED 
PRISONERS. 

This is an indispensable part of every effectual 
scheme of prison economy. It is the clincher of the 
whole. Without it the rest of the scheme, however 
perfect in itself, will largely fail to accomplish its end. 
The State, therefore, cannot afford to leave this por- 
tion of the process entirely, as is commonly proposed 
and has hitherto been done, to the kindly but uncertain 
and inadequate efforts of private charity. 

To cause the stream of criminal life to circulate 
through the penitentiary, without change or improve- 
ment in its character, must be to small purpose. It is 
only a brief arrest of the current's rapidity. It is as a 
dam thrown across a river ; the waters are checked 
and accumulated for a time, but in the end just as 
much is discharged below as is received from above. 

And scarcely to any more purpose will it be to 
reform the prisoners before returning them to society, 
if upon being so returned they are to be treated as 
outcasts. 

Yet hitherto they have been so treated, whether 
reformed or unreformed. There has prevailed in the 
community an almost unconquerable, and, as things 
have been managed, a not unnatural or unreasonable, 
feeling bf distrust and aversion, of shrinking repug- 
nance and even of fear and horror, towards discharged 
convicts. They have found no sympathy, no encour- 
agement, no helping hand, no shelter, no employment, 
no means of honest subsistence. Every man's hand 
has been against them, every back turned upon them, 



1 02 PRISON ECONOMY. 

every door shut in their faces and barred against their 
intrusion. They have been turned out of prison into 
a dark passage, walled up to heaven on either side, 
their only alternative either to lie down in it and perish, 
or to follow it out to its only exit among their old 
associates and in their old trade. ' 

Shall this continue? And what is to be the end of 
these things ? Surely these questions address them- 
selves, not merely to philanthropic sentiment, but to 
the coolest and most calculating regard for the public 
interest. No wonder that under the present system 
the proportion of re-convictions should be very large. 
We know it to be large ; but it is unquestionably much 
larger than can ever be ascertained, owing to the great 
extent of our territory and the distribution of our 
penal administration among so many independent 
States. 

With our present prison management and with the 
circumstances of discharged prisoners left as they are, 
it may be seriously questioned whether it is reasonable 
or just to condemn re-convicted criminals, as is so often 
strenuously urged, to an aggravated severity of punish- 
ment. The first step in remedying the evil must be 
the full and frank adoption in prison discipline of the 
principle of reformation, carried out through the inter- 
mediate trial above recommended and supplemented 
by the refuges here suggested. Let this course be 
adopted, and while, in accordance with the very nature 
of the reformatory plan, the re-convicted criminal would 
be placed under a severer and more cautious course 
of discipline and trial, it would also be both manifestly 
reasonable and highly important that the absolute or 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 93 

minimum length of his time-sentence or task-sentence 
should likewise be increased. 

While the present plan and working of prison dis- 
cipline continues, it will also continue impossible to 
revolutionize or greatly to modify the public sentiment 
in regard to discharged convicts, to remove or sensi- 
bly to mitigate the feeling of distrust and repugnance 
towards them. Nor if it were possible would it be 
reasonable to attempt it, for to a very great extent the 
feeling is well founded. 

The revolution must begin in the policy of the state. 
Her treatment of imprisoned convicts must be changed 
before the reception of discharged convicts on the part 
of the community can be changed. Let it not be sug- 
gested that this state of degradation, in which released 
convicts find themselves and this repulsion which they 
meet with on all sides, is their own fault, is a natural 
and proper part of their punishment. If so, the state 
ought to take their lives or shut them up in perpetual 
incarceration. She has no right to turn them out and 
spurn them from her and say, " Steal or die ; and it is 
your own fault." Here again the first step for the 
state is the adoption of the principle that reformation 
is the great end of the detention of criminals in prison. 
If this principle is once adopted and successfully car- 
ried out, it will tend most powerfully toward removing 
the popular prejudice against discharged convicts. 

Still, in order to facilitate the healthy re-absorption 
of such convicts into the mass of society, there would 
remain for a long time, and perhaps always, a necessity, 
or at least important office, for such establishments or 
refuges as we here propose. It has sometimes been 



194 PRISON ECONOMY. 

suggested and attempted to secure their re-admission 
to the bosom of society by carefully concealing their 
character as discharged convicts. What we propose 
is, an open admission of that character, by an acknowl- 
edged connection with a public establishment expressly 
kept up for their resort. This is the open and honest 
course of dealing with the community, without subter- 
fuge or deception. Discharged convicts are thus not 
smuggled into society under a mask, or thrust in an 
underhand way on those who employ them. They are 
not called upon to hide or deny the fact that they 
are discharged convicts, while all the time fully aware 
that if this fact were known they would be rejected 
and refused employment, thus beginning their new 
lives with the practice of a lesson in swindling and 
falsehood. 

These refuges or establishments for the resort of 
discharged prisoners should contain : — 

i. The means of lodging and maintenance for such 
numbers as would be likely to resort to them, with 
considerable elasticity as to enlargement or contrac- 
tion. 

2. They should be supplied with workshops, im- 
plements, and materials for the employment of such 
as should not find opportunity for employment else- 
where. 

3. They should be supplied with means of good 
advice and instruction, of mental and moral improve- 
ment, as reading-rooms, &c. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 95 

4. It should be understood that those who can find 
employment elsewhere should have their lodging here 
as long as they desire it. 

5. All should be required to pay for their board, 
lodging, and other expenses by their own earnings or 
out of their reserve fund. 

6. The reserve fund, accumulated by each prisoner 
before his release, should be held on deposit at the 
refuge, to be set against his current expenses if nec- 
essary ; and the whole to be paid up to him, not at 
once, but in installments within such time (whether he 
remains in the refuge or not) as may be judged expe- 
dient and established by a fixed rule. Such arrange- 
ments could easily be made in respect to the plan of 
his receiving the several installments as he should 
desire ; and such precautions could be taken as should 
be necessary to secure against their undue or their 
premature transfer to other parties, to the prejudice of 
the original claimant. 

7. Should the reserve fund, in any case, be exhausted, 
and the man seek to remain an idle hanger-on at the 
refuge, it would simply be proved that the reformatory 
discipline had, in his case, failed of the hoped-for effect. 
Such instances might of course occur. It would not 
be very difficult to devise the proper means of dealing 
with them ; and we are quite confident that they would 
be but few. But we shall pursue them no further. 

We have merely to add that the suggestions here 
made have in some form or other received the support 



196 PRISON ECONOMY. 

of almost every writer on prison economy in the pres- 
ent century, their voices only increasing in earnestness 
as the years roll on. Indeed, it may justly be claimed 
that the general consent of all experienced and thought- 
ful men for the last ten or fifteen years has been pitched 
in one key — " longer sentences, steadier discipline, re- 
wards for good conduct, and assistance to discharged 
prisoners." 

X. THE PARDONING POWER. 

There can be no doubt that this power has some- 
times been grossly abused. And this abuse has been 
fruitful of some of the greatest evils that beset the 
economy of penal jurisprudence. Men have been 
pardoned, because they had influential friends, or from 
mere caprice. Men have been pardoned in view of 
private and personal, and not of general and public, 
considerations. Men have been pardoned, and that by 
no means unfrequently, who have soon found their 
way back to prison again ; and sometimes these same 
men have been pardoned out a second time. Men 
have been pardoned without any proper evidence 
either of innocence, or of any mitigation of crimi- 
nality, or of reformation. Men have been pardoned, if 
not from corrupt, yet from altogether improper and in- 
sufficient motives. In short, men have been pardoned 
in such numbers, and with such entire disregard of 
fixed principles, as to encourage the commission of 
crime, breaking down the certainty of punishment even 
after conviction, and opening to the most abandoned 
criminals, when receiving their sentence, a door of hope, 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 97 

that very likely, after all, they will not be obliged to 
serve it out. 

Still, the pardoning power must be retained ; it must 
be lodged somewhere ; it cannot be dispensed with. 
There may be cases of persons who, after having been 
sentenced and committed to prison, are found to have 
been convicted on false testimony or by some mistake ; 
others in whose cases circumstances greatly miti- 
gating their offense are subsequently discovered ; 
others whose enlargement may be required for the 
ends of public justice, as that they may be qualified 
to testify as witnesses ; and others, whose offenses 
having been committed in some scene or occasion of 
great public or political excitement, their release is 
afterwards demanded, before the expiration of their 
sentence, by considerations of state policy and expe- 
diency ; and so on. 

What is needed, therefore, is not that the pardoning 
power should be abolished, but that, in the first place, 
it should be hedged about as far as possible by consti- 
tutional limitations ; and, for the rest, it should be held 
in constant check by an awakened and watchful public 
sentiment. This is needed as a safeguard against the 
abuse of all discretionary and irresponsible power; and 
too much cannot be said and done to keep such a sen- 
timent always alive and in vigorous exercise. 

But we dismiss this point with these brief remarks, 
not because it is unimportant or irrelevant to our gen- 
eral subject, but because, not being a matter of legis- 
lation, it is, strictly speaking, aside from our proper 
office. 



I 9% PRISON ECONOMY. 

XI. IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE. 

It is difficult to conceive of a case of crime in which 
imprisonment for life would be an expedient or appro- 
priate punishment. This judgment may seem strange 
or paradoxical ; but we believe that the grounds upon 
which it is founded are entirely tenable. 

Imprisonment for life as a constant substitute for 
capital punishment is scarcely defensible, for if rigor- 
ously earned out it involves unnecessary lingering 
cruelty, and at the same time has not the deterring 
power which belongs to the dread penalty of death. 
It is really killing by degrees, while it seems not to 
kill at all, and so far as the punishment is to operate 
upon others, the seeming is of more consequence than 
the reality. It is a protracted execution, yet so pro- 
tracted that the terrible impression, for want of con- 
centration,' is dissipated. On the other hand, if not 
rigorously carried out — always rigorously carried out, 
it is plainly, as regards its exemplary influence, a still 
more perfect failure; and it will not be rigorously car- 
ried out unless death, before the lapse of many years, 
should intervene to cut short its duration.* One gene- 
ration will not consent to be the executioners or jailors 
for another. The convict whose crimes have faded 
from recollection will be pardoned and released. 

Such imprisonment, as an occasional substitute for 
capital punishment, is still more awkward; for if capital 
punishment should ever be inflicted, its infliction is ap- 
parently required in those cases of crime in which it 

* We believe that the average term of imprisonment for " life sentences " is 
about ten years. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 1 99 

is judged absolutely unsafe for the guilty man ever 
again to live at large in human society. 

Looking at the subject, in the next place, in relation, 
not to the direct external effect, but to its bearing upon 
the convict himself, and upon the good of society as 
indirectly involved in his good, imprisonment for life 
must be condemned on other grounds. 

It is utterly and manifestly inconsistent with the idea 
of reformation as the object of penal detention. It 
cuts off at once all hope, all stimulus to effort, all mo- 
tive for self-denial or self-control. 

If the hopes of a future life are suggested, how 
weak must be their influence ; how dim and distant 
their view, unsupported by nearer and lower motives, 
under circumstances of aggravated temptation, and 
especially with a sense that there is time enough yet, 
and more than enough; that time, indeed, is the great- 
est burden, and that the principal object is to find out 
how to kill it as fast and effectually as possible ; and 
how inconsistent to ur^e a man, in the name of the 
state, to be good, and at the same time to tell him that, 
even if he should become a saint, you will still treat 
him as a scoundrel as long as he lives. 

If the hope of a discharge at last, through executive 
clemency, is suggested, this removes the idea of 
reformation still farther from the prisoner's mind, and, 
besides, annuls the very fact of imprisonment for life, 
and, of course, all the influence that the anticipation of 
such a fact could have upon the prisoner's mind, or 
upon the minds of others. 

•If, finally, the hope is suggested of a discharge in 
case of manifest reformation, this, to have its full effect, 



200 PRISON ECONOMY. 

or to be at all reasonable, must not be uncertain or 
capricious — a mere may be — but must be on system 
and by fixed rules ; and if so, then it is manifest that 
the imprisonment has ceased, even in theory, to be for 
life ; it is placed upon a new principle ; it is simply 
imprisonment terminable upon reformation, and upon 
reformation only. As such, we have not a word to 
say against it. It is precisely the kind of imprison- 
ment whose systematic adoption we have ventured to 
suggest as the best of all remedies for crime. 

XII. COUNTY JAILS AND MUNICIPAL PRISONS AND STATION- 
HOUSES. 

We here touch upon one of the most important, be- 
cause among us the most neglected, departments of 
prison economy. Our State prisons or penitentiaries, 
and a few of the principal county prisons, which, from 
their connection with large cities, belong, in a manner, 
to the same class, have attracted and absorbed almost 
the whole attention of those who have interested them- 
selves in the improvement of prison discipline. Upon 
what has been done in these have been exclusively 
based our too-confident boasts and over-weening self- 
satisfaction in view of the supposed vast progress by 
which we have flattered ourselves with having out- 
stripped the rest of the world. In them some progress 
has unquestionably been made. They have been bet- 
ter constructed. Their management has been raised 
to a much higher standard. Their wardens and keep- 
ers are generally most respectable, zealous, and intelli- 
gent men. They are visited, watched over, and 



PRISON ECONOMY. 201 

managed by faithful and judicious inspectors. They 
are kept before the eye of the public, which takes in 
them a lively interest. Much earnest effort is made — 
though not always successfully — to preserve them from 
confusion, over-crowding, negligence, and abuse. In 
short, the system which they have adopted, such as it is, 
is worked with most commendable fidelity and large 
efficiency. 

When we turn from these and look at the average 
of county jails and city lock-ups, the scene changes. 
Here the grossest abuses keep uninterrupted carnival. 
Bad construction, bad ventilation, bad management, 
reckless treatment, indiscriminate mingling of prison- 
ers, — with no separation at all, except that of the sexes, 
and not always even that, — intolerable crowding of 
cells, no kindly sympathy, no moral or religious in- 
struction or influence, disregard of health and cleanli- 
ness, no provision or opportunity for labor, — in plain 
violation of the statute, — the practice of all sorts of 
petty tyranny, these are their characteristics ; and the 
people love to have them so, or pass by them on the 
other side, or look upon them as places too low, rough, 
and foul to be approached or meddled with. Few 
besides the sheriff, the policeman, or the alderman — 
and the inmates — know anything about their interior 
condition or history ; and the officers, even though 
endowed with much natural goodness of heart, grow so 
thoroughly accustomed to the abuses and abominations 
that reign around them, that they become hardened to 
the scene, and lose all idea of the possibility or desir- 
ableness of reform. And as for the keepers, they 
must often be not much superior, either in intellectual 



202 PRISON ECONOMY. 

or moral character or culture to those who are placed 
under their care. Many of these city establishments, 
if inspected at an early morning hour, would suffer in 
comparison with the prisons of Turkey or Persia or 
Hindostan. Yet through them, as a kind of heart, 
the criminal, the vagrant, the drunken and quarrelsome 
part of the population, is continually circulating — fester- 
ing and fermenting together. In comparison with the 
number of persons who are annually locked up in these 
establishments, and detained for a longer or shorter 
period, the number of those sentenced to the State 
penitentiaries is as nothing. It is true some of the 
county jails are not so crowded as the city prisons and 
lock-ups ; and in general, the same abuses and evils 
do not exist to the same extent in all these institutions 
alike ; but they exist to an alarming extent, and more 
or less, almost everywhere. 

What is absolutely required in all these places of 
detention is : — 

i. Such an enlargement of the accommodations — 
at whatever cost — as may furnish for every inmate a 
separate, well-aired, cleanly, and healthy lodging for 
the night, and proper distribution for companionship 
by day (if companionship is allowed), with wholesome 
and well-served food; and, 

2. Such a provision of keepers, of high, respectable, 
and responsible character, as will insure the humane 
and judicious treatment of the prisoners. 

But, in connection with these jails and ward-houses, 
the greatest evil and most crying injustice of all re- 



PRISON ECONOMY. 203 

mains to be considered. It relates to the detention of 
witnesses, of vagrants, and of persons charged with 
crime. 

Not only are persons charged with crimes of all 
kinds and degrees, in company with idlers, drunkards, 
vagabonds, and rioters, all crowded and mingled to- 
gether, for a night, and sometimes longer, in these 
municipal Bridewells ; but, in the jails, all these are 
thus huddled in, sometimes for many months, with per- 
sons detained as witnesses added to the company ; and 
all, in many cases, left in perfect idleness, or busy only 
in deepening their own depravity or imbibing that of 
others ; the old adepts maturing their plans of crime, 
and inoculating all around them with their pestilent 
corruption. If all these were convicted felons to- 
gether, it would not only be most unwise and impolitic, 
but most inhuman and abominable, to subject them to 
such a regimen ; but who can express the enormity of its 
injustice, as well as its folly, when it is added that to it 
are subjected persons acknowledged to be perfectly in- 
nocent, who are detained by the highest stretch of the 
civil authority, merely in order to secure their testimony, 
which is presumed important to the ends of public jus- 
tice ; and persons charged with crime, indeed, but 
either charged upon suspicion, which may prove most 
foul and unfounded, or committed upon ex parte testi- 
mony, which may prove prejudiced or malicious ! The 
witnesses, we say, are confessedly innocent, it may be 
virtuous men, whose only fault is that they are poor 
and friendless, and therefore cannot furnish a satisfac- 
tory guarantee for their appearance at the required 
time. The state may have a right to detain them — 



204 PRISON ECONOMY. 

she may have a right temporarily to deprive them of 
their liberty, as she has a right to take private property 
for the public good ; but what right has she to thrust 
them in to herd with vagrants, thieves, pickpockets, 
and murderers, as their associates day and night ? If it 
be thought that as virtuous men they will be in no 
great danger of being harmed, but may do some good 
in such society, it must be remembered that some of 
them may be young and inexperienced, or intellectually 
or morally weak ; in any event, that an honest man or 
woman must look upon the imposition of such society 
as a gross and horrible infliction ; and that to compel 
men to be missionaries has never been recognized as 
one of the rights of the state. 

As to persons committed or detained under a charge 
of crime, the phrase of the law is that all such persons 
are " presumed innocent until they are proved guilty." 
Is this phrase a mere magniloquent sham, mere sound, 
meaning nothing, keeping the promise to the ear but 
false to the hope ? When persons are thus incarce- 
rated, which are they treated most like, the innocent or 
the guilty ? It is true this maxim of the law could 
never be reasonably supposed to be taken in that ab- 
solute and sweeping sense in which it is perhaps popu- 
larly understood, and is often urged by over-zealous 
attorneys and advocates. It cannot be meant that, in 
the case of a person charged with crime, it is to be 
presumed, until his guilt is proved, that his innocence 
is proved and established ; for, if that were so, he 
ought at once to be acquitted and discharged. His 
case is a case of doubt. Strictly speaking he is to be 
treated neither as innocent nor as guilty, but, accord- 



PRISON ECONOMY. 205 

ing to the true state of the case, and just as what he is — 
a person charged with crime. And the legal maxim 
referred to, if it means anything, must mean as much 
as this, that a man charged with crime presumably 
may be innocent, that such a man is not to be treated 
as guilty until he is proved so, and that the burden of 
proof is on the side of the prosecution. Such a man 
the state has a clear right temporarily to restrain 
of his liberty, to detain before trial, as long as neces- 
sary, and no longer. But the state can have no right 
to add to that detention one particle of hardship or 
discomfort, of exposure or privation, of contempt or 
ignominy, beyond what is reasonably required to se- 
cure his person and prevent his escape. In all other 
respects he has a right to be treated with all possible 
consideration, respect, and kindness. 

It must be observed, and the state must be pre- 
sumed to know it, from past experience, that a certain 
percentage of persons thus detained are bad and cor- 
rupt men, guilty of crimes of greater or less enormity, 
and most dangerous, as well as most repulsive, com- 
panions for the far greater percentage, who, it is 
equally known, will prove to have been innocent, or 
nearly so. A proper concern for her own protection 
and welfare, as well as a just regard for the feelings, 
the rights, and the moral safety of the latter parties, 
should forbid the state to thrust all these into one in- 
discriminate company, before ascertaining which are 
the bad and which the good. She knows that both 
bad and good are there, and that, by companionship, the 
bad will make themselves and others worse ; yet she 
leaves the business to take its course. And what, in 



206 PRISON ECONOMY. 

connection with the city of Philadelphia, adds unspeak- 
able outrage to unspeakable folly, is the temptation 
which, by law, is thrown in the way of police magis- 
trates, and to which they are notoriously and con- 
stantly yielding, to commit large numbers of persons 
to prison on the most trivial charges, for the mere 
purpose of blackmailing them — unless the explanation 
is that they make a wholesale business of compounding 
felonies — and thus swelling the fees, and perhaps other 
perquisites, of the committing and discharging magis- 
trate ; — yes, " the magistrate," we are obliged to say ; 
but, in such a case, which is the magistrate and which 
the thief? 

The inspectors of the Philadelphia County Prison, in 
their last annual report, have again urged this subject 
most earnestly upon the attention of the legislature. 
This is their statement : — : " Of the prisoners committed 
for trial during the past year (nine thousand eight 
hundred and twenty- three), six thousand six hundred 
and ninety-seven were discharged by the committing 
magistrates, and in the cases of four hundred and fif- 
teen the bills of indictment were ignored by the grand 
jury. These figures show a larger than usual propor- 
tion of persons discharged without being brought to 
trial (nearly three-fourths of the whole number com- 
mitted), who, as a general rule, settled their cases, as it 
is termed, with the committing magistrates. It is 
obvious that so long as the income of these officers 
depends directly upon the fees accruing from cases 
brought before them, commitments for trivial or un- 
necessary cases will be multiplied." 

The board again desires to express its opinion of the 



PRISON ECONOMY. 207 

necessity of a reform in the police magistracy of Phila- 
delphia, and in view of the proposed convention to 
reform the State Constitution, it would invoke the aid 
of all good citizens to secure the necessary change 
in our organic law for this purpose. As has been often 
urged in these annual reports, we would here again 
submit, that the great and foremost evil in the criminal 
department of Philadelphia is the system of police mag- 
istracy ; and no reform is so much needed as a change 
at least in the mode of compensation of our committing 
magistrates. So long as their receipts are directly 
dependent upon and swollen by what must be stated 
to be simply a traffic in the manipulation of petty crime, 
it is idle to anticipate radical improvement in the treat- 
ment of this class of prisoners. It is difficult to believe 
that such a system of magistracy can be tolerated in a 
city like Philadelphia, and that her citizens can sit 
quietly under so great a reproach. If our police 
magistrates were removed from the sphere of politics, 
by a change in the mode of selection ; if they held their 
offices by a good-behavior tenure ; were required to 
be learned in the law, and were compensated by ade- 
quate fixed salaries, in place of fees, a reform would 
be accomplished the effects of which upon social im- 
provement can scarcely be estimated.* 

Here, then, is one per cent, of all the population of 
Philadelphia subjected annually to this scandalous pro- 
cess, this organized system of arbitrary oppression and 
plunder. How we should pity the darkness and deg- 
radation of Turkish or Egyptian society, if such a 

*See report for 1 87 1, pages 17 and 18. The Constitutional Convention made 
the change suggested. (1877.) 



208 PRISON ECONOMY. 

shameful system of abomination, under color of the 
administration of justice, were allowed to be prac- 
ticed among them from year to year. Yet such is the 
system of police magistracy in the city of Philadelphia. 
There is a very common feeling, it is true, that these 
persons, though not actually convicted of crime, are 
yet in all probability guilty of it ; or, if not guilty of 
the precise crime alleged, are guilty of some other — 
at all events, are bad men, keeping bad company, sus- 
picious and dangerous characters — that, therefore, they 
deserve little consideration in their treatment, and that 
no great mistake can be committed in consigning them 
at once and together to a common prison. This feeling 
ignores the fact, just brought to view, that by far the 
larger part — nearly three-fourths — of those who are 
committed to prison charged with some violation of law, 
are actually released without trial; while of those who 
are brought to trial more than three-fifths are acquitted. 
Now, whatever deductions may be reasonably made 
from the magnificent largeness of the legal maxim above 
referred to, that "a man is to be presumed innocent 
until he is proved guilty;" and whatever may be the 
loose estimates in the private judgment of individuals, 
or in the popular mind, in regard to probable moral 
turpitude in any cases, the state is bound, — and it is the 
state that is here the responsible agent, for it is she 
that arranges prisons and detains prisoners, — the state 
is bound, to presume those to have been innocent 
whose guilt she has failed or not even attempted to 
prove, or who, upon solemn trial, have been acquitted. 
Indeed it would seem not unreasonable for the state, 
which holds herself bound to pay for the private prop- 



PRISON ECONOMY. 209 

erty which she takes for the public good, to make to 
such parties some amends, if possible — and still more 
in the case of detained witnesses — for the mere deten- 
tion which they have suffered, even though that 
detention had been attended with no unnecessary 
aggravations. If such aggravations, and that to a 
most outrageous extent, have been needlessly added, 
how ought the state to be visited with compunctions, 
as well as with a desire to make all possible repara- 
tion, — yet no reparation is ever made. 

It is true that the large and increasing class of sus- 
picious characters, of idle, desperate, and dangerous 
men that congregate especially in large cities, and 
prowl about the streets by day as well as by night, may 
need to be dealt with in some special and more effective 
way than has yet been invented. It is indeed very 
difficult to contrive any such way of dealing with them 
consistently with the principles of our common law and 
our free institutions. But, whatever method is a'dopted, 
it should not be by indirection or caprice, — it should be 
straightforward, square, open, regulated. If these men 
are to be punished, they should be punished as being 
just what they are, and should not be mixed up indis- 
criminately with men fully indicted for definite crime, 
on the one hand, and, on the other, with men charged 
with no crime or suspicion. 

We venture the following general suggestions : — 

1. All persons sentenced to jail to be imprisoned at 
hard labor, should either be kept in strict solitary con- 
finement, or, when they desire it, being properly classi- 
fied, should have the means of employing themselves 



2IO PRISON ECONOMY. 

daily in productive labor. Their being allowed to herd 
together in idleness is one of the gross abuses of some 
of our county jails. 

2. Persons committed as idlers and vagrants should 
be treated in the same manner, — only in entire separa- 
tion both from convicts and from all other classes of 
prisoners. 

3. Persons detained as witnesses should also have 
entirely separate quarters from all others, whether 
convicts, vagrants, or suspected persons. They should 
have the means of perfect privacy or of mutual associa- 
tion at pleasure ; also, the means of reading and 
writing and of such employment at labor as they may 
choose. With these might be joined another class, 
which fortunately is likely to be but small, viz., persons 
committed for contempt. Such persons may be highly 
respectable men, guilty only of some impropriety of 
conduct or bearing or of declining to perform some 
legal mandate, and that sometimes from high though 
mistaken motives of duty; and it is most unreasonable 
that they should be thrust into prison among felons 
and vagabonds. The restraint of their liberty and 
that for an unlimited time, — for, curiously enough, this 
is the only class of persons whose period of imprison- 
ment is, under present law and usage, terminable only 
upon reformation, — such restraint is leverage enough 
wherewith to act upon their wills, without forcing upon 
them the grievous alternative of submission or of 
"rotting" in such a jail. 



PJZISON ECONOMY. 211 

4. Persons committed under charge of crime should 
also have their separate quarters and should be treated, 
in general, as the last-mentioned classes of prisoners ; 
but with some important modifications, such as, that 
those charged with graver crimes should be secured 
with the greater caution, and that they all should be 
more or less rigorously confined to their separate cells 
or classified for mutual association, if they so prefer, 
according to their conduct, known history, and ascer- 
tained characters. 

5. We most heartily and earnestly endorse the 
recommendation of the inspectors of the Philadelphia 
County Prison, above cited, in reference to the reform 
of the police magistracy of that city. 

Now we are aware that all this may be met and 
smothered in the cold blanket of a calculating economy. 

It may be avoided by running away. It may be 
buried and forgotten under arithmetical estimates. 
The cost, the huge outlay, the enormous expense of 
making such immense and sumptuous provision for 
the entertainment of prisoners ! We answer that here 
we will not enter into any petty calculation of dollars 
and cents. If this thing ought to be done, if it is due 
to the classes of men whom the state thus takes into 
her custody, then is the state bound to do it at what- 
ever cost. The state cannot afford to practice inhu- 
manity. The state cannot afford to commit injustice, 
still less can she afford to commit it systematically and 
on an enormous scale, deliberately and from year to 
year, and talk of saving a few paltry dollars. 



2 1 2 PRISON E CONOMY. 

The truth is, and we repeat it, this mixing together 
in the society of one common prison, and often crowd- 
ing into the same cells, by night as well as by day, all 
these various classes of persons in custody — thrusting 
them, like so many swine, into one pen — is nothing less 
than a burning disgrace to the police and jurisprudence 
of a civilized state. It is an outrageous injustice, an un- 
speakable abomination. It is simply astounding that 
it should have been allowed to continue, without a 
thorough remedy, to the present day. 

But this is not all. Such a state of our prisons is 
not only an injustice to the individual, it is a great 
public evil ; it is one of the most fruitful sources of 
crime, furnishing the most admirable contrivances for 
inviting and facilitating its propagation. Thus the 
wrong reacts upon the wrong-doer ; and the penu- 
rious system of injustice costs more than the generous 
remedy. It turns out here, as it always will, that the 
course of humanity and right is the cheapest in the end. 

So far as the " generous remedy " has been tried, it 
has proved abundantly successful. Say the inspectors 
of the Philadelphia prison : — " The decrease in the 
number of the commitments of females is much greater 
than in that of males, and is so large during the four 
years that have elapsed since the extension of the 
female department, that it may be fairly attributed to 
the increased accommodation for female prisoners, that 
was secured by the transfer of the old debtors' apart- 
ment to the female department. The separation of 
female prisoners, which was thus accomplished, with 
the greater facilities for the enforcement of prison dis- 
cipline, has resulted in a marked diminution of vagrancy 



PRISON E CONOMY. 2 1 3 

and crime in the female population of our city. The 
expenditure originally involved in the extension of the 
female department has proved a true economy, and 
the results attained support the arguments which have 
been so repeatedly urged in favor of an extension of 
the more important and over-crowded male depart- 
ment of the prison." They add : — 

"The board would here repeat the views expressed 
in previous reports, upon the subject of an extension 
of the prison, and again call the attention of the legis- 
lature to the incapacity of the prison for the proper 
confinement and employment of its large male popu- 
lation. In every aspect, sanitary, moral, and economi- 
cal, the injurious effects of its over-crowded condition 
are manifest. The results of improved accommodation 
in the female department, previously cited, have shown 
that the great growth of crime and vagrancy is directly 
stimulated by the undue congregation of prisoners. 
It can scarcely be doubted that the collection of a 
number of prisoners in a single cell soon reduces all 
to the moral level of the worst prisoner; and the un- 
ceasing intercourse which results from the original 
construction of the prison, with a view to the separate 
system, fosters the moral contagion more actively than 
in prisons not designed for this system. * * 
The board feels that this subject can be no longer 
overlooked, and that either the extension of the convict 
blocks, or the construction of a new prison, has become 
a necessity." 

Hitherto convicted felons have been the heroes of 
our prison economy. They have been treated with 
great respect. They have been a sort of little standing 



214 PRISON ECONOMY. 

army. Their discipline has absorbed the almost ex- 
clusive attention of all parties, while the organizing 
and training of the militia has been neglected. We 
need now to turn our attention emphatically to the 
municipal bridewells and all the over-crowded houses 
of primary detention ; to the police arrangements which 
precede the processes of trial and conviction, or which, 
perhaps, through gross abuse and mismanagement, 
not only never lead, but are never even intended to 
lead to such a conclusion. 



XIII. SUMMARY. 

The board begs now to resume and recapitulate the 
principal points which they have endeavored to make, 
in relation to the whole subject of crime and prison 
economy, including, with those which have passed 
under discussion, some which have been merely al- 
luded to as preliminary, and presenting all in one 
connected view. 

i. For dealing with crime preventive rather than 
remedial measures to be chiefly relied upon — among 
these : — 

{a.) A thorough system of universal education. 

(b.) Special and effective measures for the care of 
truant, vagrant, neglected, and over-tasked children. 

(c.) Reformatory schools and houses of correction to 
be provided to a much larger extent for the various 
grades of juvenile offenders. 



PRISON E CONOMY. 2 1 5 

(d.) Due provision for the proper care of all the 
poor and helpless. 

(e.) Effective laws for the suppression of intemper- 
ance, which is one of the most prolific sources of crime. 

{/.) Due provision for the restraint and employment 
of all idle vagrants. 

(g.) Due provision in the county and municipal 
prisons for the separate and proper treatment of 
vagrants, detained witnesses, and persons charged with 
crime, as well as convicts. 

2. The remedial system, or prison economy proper. 
This should be based upon the fundamental principle 
of reformation through punishment^ and not of punish- 
ment only as its proper end. It should contain, 
among others, the following features : — 

(a.) Sufficient provision for the separate confinement 
of each convict. 

(5.) After a longer or shorter period of separate con- 
finement, and the performance of certain prescribed 
tasks, provision made for the employment of the con- 
victs in voluntary, productive labor, as a means of 
moral improvement, as a preparation for their future 
self-support, and as necessary for their present health 
of body and mind. 

(c.) Unless solitary labor should be preferred, this 
labor to be performed in small companies or families, 



21 6 PRISON ECONOMY. 

properly selected, the members having free intercourse 
together, and ultimately being mutually responsible for 
one another's conduct. 

(d.) The proceeds of the labor to be appropriated : — 
First, to defray the current expenses of the convict 
and indemnify the state ; secondly, to contribute to the 
support of the convict's family if necessary ; thirdly, to 
the convict himself, to go partly to form a reserve fund 
against the time of his release, and partly as he may 
choose, for procuring present alleviations and comforts. 

(e.) Instruction should be given to all the convicts, 
as they may need: — First, in some trade or handicraft; 
secondly, in the elements of learning and knowledge ; 
and, thirdly, in the principles and practice of morality 
and religion. 

(f.) Considerate and humane treatment to be em- 
phatically insisted on, using, as far as possible, moral 
influence instead of physical force, and endeavoring, 
above all things, to develop the self-respect and man- 
hood of the prisoners, and their better and kindlier 
natures. 

(g.) A careful classification of the prisoners to be 
constantly kept up, and from time to time corrected ; — 
not based upon any external or arbitrary considera- 
tions, but upon character and conduct. 

(h.) Provision to be made for securing a corps of 
judicious, trained, and, eventually, experienced keep- 
ers, for rendering their profession honorable and re- 



PRISON E CONOMY. 2 I 7 

spectable; and, to this end, a special school for their 
training to be established. 

(t.) A commutation of meritorious conduct and prob- 
able reformation for mere lapse of time, as the ground 
of final discharge. That is to say, convicts may earn 
their release by such evidence of meritorious conduct 
and habits as will imply their probable permanent re- 
formation. 

(/.) That there shall be, in the case of each convict, 
a certain time-sentence, graduated according to his of- 
fense, but, in each case, for a much longer period than 
at present, so as to leave full opportunity for the effect 
of the commutation and the working out of the reform- 
atory process; premising that the ideal perfection of 
the plan, which makes the discharge of every prisoner 
absolutely dependent upon his reformation, would re- 
quire too great a revolution in legal and popular ideas 
to be as yet expected or asked for. 

(k.) Some definite and detailed record or system of 
marks to be kept, which, under fixed rules, may be a 
guide for classification and rewards, as well as for the 
final judgment ; having a debit as well as a credit side, 
and providing for loss of standing and class, or even 
for a remanding to the cell, in case of misconduct. 

(/.) Intermediate prisons or houses of discharge to 
be provided, where the prisoners — still remaining un- 
discharged from their sentence — may be finally tested, 
by being trusted with a great degree of liberty, and 
left in large measure to control themselves, under most 



218 PRISON ECONOMY. 

of the ordinary temptations of social life, yet liable, for 
unfaithfulness, for misconduct, or attempted escape, to 
be degraded and sent back to begin their work over 
again. 

(m.) Refuges to be provided for released prisoners, 
to facilitate their re-introduction to the bosom of society, 
and where they can have, at their own expense, lodging 
and maintenance and means of employment, until they 
can procure employment elsewhere. 

Such are the outlines of a general plan of criminal 
police and prison economy. It is by no means pre- 
sumed that every point is unquestionably established, 
still less that the plan is complete for working pur- 
poses. No name is given to it of any system, whether 
old or new. It is not denominated the separate or the 
congregate or the mixed system, the English, the Irish, 
the Belgian, the Massachusetts, or the Pennsylvania 
system. It must stand, not upon the prejudices or the 
associations, whether favorable or unfavorable, con- 
nected with a name, but upon its own intrinsic merits, 
in detail as well as in gross. In view of these, then, it 
is respectfully submitted for dispassionate considera- 
tion. If it shall have the effect to awaken such an 
interest in the subject and its discussion as shall lead 
to systematic practical action, this board will be more 
than rewarded, more than satisfied. 

What is especially needed in this matter is a well- 
considered, complete, and consistent system. Our 
whole scheme must be remodeled to meet the de- 
mands of the times, the state of our modern civili- 



PRISON ECONOMY. 219 

zation, and the progressive ideas of free, popular 
government. Partial expedients and reforms lead 
only to eventual disappointment and discouragement. 
They are only a piece of new cloth patched upon an 
old garment, wasting the good and making the whole 
worse. 

Such a complete system would, of course, require 
unity of control. 

All the prisons and houses of detention in the Com- 
monwealth, whether State, county, or municipal, should 
be placed under the supervision and direction of one 
head, or of one board of management, representing the 
authority of the State. In respect to all matters of 
prison construction and prison discipline, the county 
and municipal authorities should be required to act 
under the direction of this central and supreme au- 
thority. 

That something must speedily be done in the path 
of reform seems to be beyond question. To judge of 
any mode of prison discipline, four tests have been 
proposed : — 

1. Does it secure the custody of the convict? 

2. Does it pay its own expenses ? 

3. Does it check and diminish crime ? 

4. Does it reform the criminal ? 

Of these tests the first is of prime importance as a 
necessary condition of all the others. If prisons are 
not secure they are useless for any purpose. The 



2 20 PRISON ECONOMY. 

second test is of some incidental importance, but of 
no essential consequence. The third and fourth bring 
out the great objects of imprisonment. The fourth is 
of the highest importance, practically as well as mor- 
ally, for on it the third also is largely dependent. 
Now our prisons, with a few exceptions, are places of 
secure custody, and so far our present system suc- 
ceeds. But in view of the other three tests, and par- 
ticularly of the last, we fear it must be pronounced a 
failure ; and if so, where is the fault, and how can it be 
remedied ? These are the questions to be earnestly 
pondered. We have endeavored, though in a very 
fragmentary and imperfect way, to show how they 
should be answered ; and while our suggestions have 
been, for the most part, the result of our independent 
observation and reflection, and must stand upon their 
own merits, and no man's authority, it may yet be of 
interest to add that, according to the report of our 
highly respected fellow-citizen, Joseph R. Chandler, 
Esq., the International Prison Congress lately assem- 
bled in London reached the following propositions or 
general results, as stated in the concluding report of 
their executive committee : — 

"First. — Recognizing, as a fundamental fact, that the 
protection of society is the object for which penal codes 
exist, the committee believe that this protection is not 
only consistent with, but absolutely demands, the enun- 
ciation of the principle, that the moral regeneration of 
the prisoner should be the primary aim of prison dis- 
cipline. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 221 

" Second. — A progressive classification of prisoners 
should be adopted in all prisons. 

" Thi7'd.—\n the treatment of prisoners all disciplin- 
ary punishments that inflict unnecessary pain or hu- 
miliation should be abolished. 

"Fourth. — To impel a prisoner to self-exertion should 
be the aim of systems of prison discipline, which can 
never be effective unless they succeed in gaining the 
will of the convict. 

" Fifth. — Work, education, and religion are the three 
great forces on which prison administrators should 
rely." 

The board conclude this branch of their report with 
earnestly and formally recommending to the legislature 
the prompt appointment of a commission of prudent and 
cautious men, learned in the law, fully abreast with the 
times, and imbued with the spirit of progress, as well 
as of conservation, who shall not only make thorough 
inquiry into the principles and practice of penal juris- 
prudence and prison economy, but shall be empowered 
and directed to revise all the existing statutes on these 
subjects, and to mature and present for adoption by 
the legislature a scheme of legislation based upon the 
principle of the pi'evention of crime, and the reforma- 
tion of criminals, as its fundamental ends. 

The board recommends the appointment of a spe- 
cial commission, not for merely making a report to be 
read and printed and forgotten ; not for mere curious 



222 PRISON ECONOMY. 

inquiry or idle investigation ; but for immediate prac- 
tical action. 

Let Pennsylvania once more take the lead of the 
civilized world in this great and pressing reform. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

By order of the board. 

GEO. L. HARRISON, 

President. 

NOTE. 

To show how far the views above set forth have 
approved themselves upon further investigation and 
experience, and to bring the state of the question down 
to the present time, the following brief statements are 
added : — 

In Ireland, the progressive system of imprisonment 
is still prospering. Denmark has adopted it in its 
entirety. Sweden and Norway are pressing towards 
the same goal. Switzerland is following fast. In 
several of the cantons the whole system has been 
adopted, with the exception of the intermediate prison. 
Neufchatel is upon the point of introducing it com- 
plete — intermediate prison, provisional or preparatory 
liberation, and all. In Italy, similar arrangements have 
been inaugurated. Progress in this direction has been 
made in England, especially in respect to the patron- 
age of discharged prisoners. In Belgium and Hol- 
land, the cellular (separate) system still maintains its 
ground ; though in Holland the progressive principle 
has found numerous adherents. In Germany and 



PRISON E CONOMY. 223 

Austria, the subject of prison economy and reform is 
undergoing a general investigation and discussion. 
The result cannot be doubtful. Great reforms have 
been made and are in progress in France and Russia. 
Several of the States of our own Union, and particu- 
larly New York, have been making great progress in 
the same direction. Pennsylvania, it must be acknowl- 
edged, has done little as yet to maintain or recover 
her ancient prestige. 

At the meeting of the International Penitentiary 
Commission at Bruchsal (Baden), three questions were 
distinctly raised : (1) Can criminals be reformed? If 
so, (2) on what principles should reformatory treat- 
ment be based ? (3) By what agencies or methods 
should such a system be worked ? And they were 
distinctly answered in favor of the progressive system, 
as outlined in the foregoing report of 1872. 

M. Guillaume, commissioned to prepare a draft for 
a penal system in several cantons of Switzerland ; M. 
De Fleury, commissioned for a like purpose in Brazil ; 
Messrs. Michaux and Marsangy, members of the great 
French parliamentary commission on penitentiary re- 
form, — all, without consultation or concert, have, in 
elaborate reports, reached substantially the same con- 
clusion. 

1. Proper care and training of the young is premised 
in forefront of all measures for the prevention of crime. 

2. Cellular separation is recommended for short 
terms of imprisonment, as a preliminary detention for 
long terms, and as an occasional corrective. 



224 PRISON E CONOMY. 

3. They all earnestly support, for long-term prison- 
ers, a system of progressive classification, with labor 
and instruction, in which the fate of the criminal is 
largely placed in his own hands, and which is gradually 
relaxed and softened as he earns increased indulgence 
and privilege ; until, 

4. Through the intermediate prison, with little more 
than moral detention, he passes into 

5. Conditional liberation, with kindly supervision ; 
and thus, finally, to his complete discharge, a reformed 
and useful and happy man, " redeemed, regenerated, 
disenthralled." 

The International Prison Congress in New York, in 
1876, besides a general approval of these same princi- 
ples in regard to the management of prisons and 
treatment of prisoners, very strongly and distinctly 
endorsed the views of this report, in the matter (1) of 
the imprisonment of witnesses, (2) of county jails, (3) 
of the treatment of discharged prisoners, and (4) of 
reformatory institutions, especially for juveniles. 



PRISON REFORM. 

In presenting again to your honorable bodies the 
subject of prison reform, the board ask for your 
thoughtful consideration of a question the most mo- 
mentous and grave which can be laid before you. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 225 

/ 

Temporary matters of law or polity submitted for 
your decision, are in comparison but of local and 
superficial importance, but the problem of the lessen- 
ing of the mass of crime and vice and ignorance in 
our penitentiaries and prisons and reformatory schools, 
the alleviation of the cankering sore, never to be 
cured in the body politic, is one which touches not 
only the moneyed interest, but the civilization, the 
vitality, and the religion of the state. 

We have grown apathetic to the existence of the 
criminal classes. Nothing so dulls the moral sense 
as custom, and we have seen the barred windows of 
the county jail, or the massive walls of the peniten- 
tiary since childhood ; have learned to look upon the 
miserable wretches behind their bolts and crratinors ^ 

o o 

human beings, perhaps, but as alien to ourselves, — as 
creatures of another race and age. 

These strongholds of misery, and the thieves and 
murderers who tenant them, have come to appear to 
us as commonplace, though inexorable a fact, as the 
ground on which the prisons are built. It is difficult 
for the best man actually to realize that he personally 
has a duty to fulfill to them. The thief, the murderer, 
the degraded woman, are here ; but why they are here, 
by what strange mischance they missed their place in 
nature's wise economy in this life, or where they are to 
go when this life is over, are questions with which 
society has hitherto troubled itself too little. The or- 
dinary citizen has no uneasy doubts that part of the 
guilt of their existence rests on himself, and shows no 
anxiety for their sake or his own, that they should be 
brought, if possible, to the same level of decency, 



226 PRISON ECONOMY. 

honest living, and chance of elevation. If one of these 
wretches jars against his own orderly life, he promptly 
locks him in jail or penitentiary, or hangs him, and 
then washing his hands in self-righteousness, declares 
himself, like Pilate, "free from the blood of this man." 

After a year, or term of years in prison (during 
which the orderly citizen is taxed for his support), the 
convict is released, to become, through crime or pauper- 
ism, a yet heavier burden upon the tax-payer, and 
hardened and embittered by punishment, to spread 
more widely his virulent moral poison. 

Here, in plain words, is the ordinary history of the 
treatment of crime ; and there is assuredly no function 
of government in which society has proved itself so 
willfully blind to its own interests, putting aside all 
question of humanity. When a fatal epidemic is abroad, 
doing its deadly work upon our bodies, all the skill and 
foresight and care which we can command are brought 
forward to foil or banish it. Municipalities and indi- 
viduals alike bestir themselves with eager zeal to 
purify the air, to remove every trace of stagnant water, 
carrion, or other foul deposit which may breed disease ; 
the medical science of the growth of centuries is sum- 
moned to detect the secret agents of these subtle 
poisons, and to counteract them. But since society 
was organized this contagion of crime, fatal alike to 
soul and body, has been at work, and what has been 
done to combat it? 

The sole remedy suggested by the wisdom of ages 
was the locking up of the criminal, and at a given 
period, his release, with whetted appetite for his un- 
wholesome work. It is precisely as though we should 



PRISON E CO NO MY. f 227 

cover over a malarious swamp for a certain time until 
its vapors had gathered fresh malignant venom, and 
then set them free on their death-dealing errand. 

It should . be observed here that, in the examination 
of this question, we are not to consider special cases 
of wise and beneficent administration of prison or 
penitentiary ; or on the other hand the most besotted 
and barbarous treatment; but we must look at the 
general character and condition of prison economy and 
discipline, as we find it in our own State, and as we 
know from personal observation or other knowledge 
that it exists anywhere. 

We can point to examples of most just and credit- 
able concern for the welfare of the incarcerated hu- 
man beings under certain management, and again to 
the grossest neglect and abuse of these unhappy crimi- 
nals in the other direction. It is the terrible fact that 
stares us in the face that, at least in every moral point 
of view, the latter is the general characteristic of the 
prisons of the whole world. 

As a means of improvement in the administration of 
our own county jails, we strongly recommend now, as 
in the past, the enactment of a general law, which will 
take from the sheriffs of the counties the control of 
the prisons, and provide for boards of inspectors, who 
will appoint suitable persons as wardens to administer 
these institutions. 

In consideration of the progress made by mankind 
in science and knowledge of every sort, the cruelty, 
and in many cases the barbarity, of its modes of deal- 
ing with crime appear almost incredible to the student 
of political economy. Something has been done within 



228 PXISOJV E CONOMY. 

a few years to solve the problem with the broad and 
enlightened truths and sound practical sense which it 
deserves, but the success has been but meagre, consist- 
ing so far more of attempt than execution. That Penn- 
sylvania may at least endeavor to keep pace with that 
little, is the motive of your board in bringing the sub- 
ject thus urgently before your honorable bodies at the 
present time. We will summarize as briefly as pos- 
sible the present status of the reformatory effort, and 
its desired promotion at your hands. 

The motive idea of the treatment of criminals was, 
until a comparatively recent date, simply punitive and 
deterrent, not unmixed, in coarser grades of society, 
with the sentiment of revenge. The ill-doer was to 
be driven to repentance, or at least terrified from a 
repetition of his offense, by actual physical suffering. 
One hundred years ago this mode of treatment had 
reached its full development even in Christian Protestant 
England. Capital punishment was inflicted for two 
hundred different offenses ; men were hanged for steal- 
ing a loaf of bread, for breaking a hop-pole, as cer- 
tainly as for murder ; debtors suffered the same treat- 
ment in the jails as other prisoners, and this treatment 
consisted in the herding of men and women promis- 
cuously in cells reeking with filth, and wet with the foul 
damps oozing from the ground, with only an aperture 
of four inches by eight to admit the already poisoned air 
from the dark passage-way. " Debtors in gangs were 
padlocked by the leg to the different links of a long 
chain stapled to the wall, and at night the prisoners 
were laid on their backs and caged by iron bars passing 
over their bodies, while spiked iron collars about their 



PRISON ECONOMY. 229 

necks prevented any movement of the head." The 
sole employment of these prisoners was gambling and 
drinking ; a bar for prisoners being kept by every 
jailor, whose interest it was to lead them into de- 
bauchery and excess. 

The labors of John Howard removed many of the 
abuses of this system. Prisoners no longer rot out 
half their lives in English and American prisons from 
inability to pay the extortionate demands of brutal 
keepers. They are not suffered to die in darkness, 
filth, and foul air, of jail-fever or starvation ; but while 
the physical discipline is ameliorated by reason and 
humanity, the moral treatment in our jails is founded 
on the same principle as in the days of Howard. The 
prisoner is punished precisely as a dog is made to feel 
the lash to deter him from ill-doinor while no more 
attempt is made to convince him of his guilt, or to put 
in his hands the means, when discharged, Q f avoiding 
his evil courses, or gaining an honest livelihood, than 
if he were in reality a brute. 

Even in the penitentiaries where the labor has been 
made part of the punitive and reformatory discipline, 
there is still large limit for reform. In many state 
prisons the contract or leasing system is in use, by 
which the convict is regarded simply as a money-mak- 
ing machine for the contractor. 

In the most humanely governed of these institutions 
the application of moral influences is but occasional 
and unsystematic. The exhortations of a chaplain, 
however zealous and faithful, to several hundred pris- 
oners, must necessarily prove less efficacious in prompt- 
ing the individual convict to the exertions which will 



230 PRISON ECONOMY. • 

give him his lost place among honest men, than a legal- 
ized, unalterable system which will affect all his hourly 
and daily work and thoughts, and, through them, 
inspire with hope in the future and that faith in himself 
and in the humanity of his fellow-men, of which a long 
course of crime has robbed him. 

There is such a system, conceived in the purest 
spirit of humanity, and based upon a profound knowl- 
edge of the needs and requirements of human nature. 
It has already been tested thoroughly, and we present, 
or rather re-present, a modification of this system for 
your consideration. Having submitted it heretofore 
with much amplification, we shall not dwell upon its 
details at any length, but touch only upon a few points, 
readily attainable, and which furnish a sure outlook, 
as we believe, to salutary results. 

The ideal plan in its entirety is probably impractica- 
ble in the present condition of public sentiment. Its 
plain idea was to generate in the convict's mind the 
incitement of hope rather than the sullenness of despair, 
which is the slow outgrowth of an inevitable punish- 
ment. It was devised and partially carried into exe- 
cution by Captain Maconochie in a penal colony in 
Australia, and the jail at Birmingham, England. 

This method was briefly as follows: — The convict 
was not to be sentenced for any given time, but until 
he should have earned a certain number of marks 
according to his crime. These marks were given for 
good conduct, industry, neatness, &c. They were 
reckoned as money, and with them he was required to 
pay first for his clothing, food, &c; out of the surplus 
only could he buy his release. The prisoner also 



PRISON ECONOMY. 231 

passed through certain stages or conditions, being 
subjected at first to solitary confinement, low diet, 
absolute idleness, with but a small opportunity of gaining 
the marks of approval by his patience and obedience. 
The permission to labor was received as a relief. 
From this period the way lay open to him to earn 
better food, lodging, and, finally, freedom. 

The principle of this method will, we are confident, 
be recognized by you as that which underlies every 
wise system of government. It is simply the attach- 
ment of inflexibly certain rewards and punishments to 
good and bad conduct. This is the outline of the 
great scheme of polity established by the Creator for 
His rational creatures in this life, and we can not 
assuredly act unwisely in imitating it, however feebly, 
in our dealings with those of our unfortunate brethren 
who, from mischance of birth or education, are thus 
made dependent upon us to gain their knowledge of 
Christianity, or faith in its teachings. 

A modification of this system has been practiced for 
nearly twenty years in Ireland by Sir Walter Crofton. 
Here there are three prisons through which each con- 
vict passes. The first penal, with solitary confinement ; 
the second reformatory, where the inmates are divided 
into classes, earning their advancements by good 
marks. " The majority of persons," we are told, " earn 
the maximum of marks and secure their promotion 
within the shortest period allowed." The third "prison" 
is in fact no prison, but an open farm, where there is 
neither bolt nor bar to prevent their escape, the deten- 
tion being simply that of moral influence. Yet during 
the twenty years in which this experiment has been 



232 PRISON ECONOMY. 

tried, not more than a dozen escapes have been made. 
Lusk, is, in fact, an intermediate halting-place, where 
the men have an opportunity to test the value of the 
moral and other teachings which they have received 
during their confinement. They work together, or 
singly, and " their constant thought is what they shall 
do when they are liberated, what wages they will be 
likely to obtain, how they can win honest bread and 
an honorable position." Nor in these twenty years 
has there been cause for a single complaint from any 
of the farmers living in the vicinage, although there is 
neither restraint nor discipline at Lusk other than that 
maintained over ordinary farm laborers. 

We cite these facts as proof, if any is needed, of the 
wisdom and expediency of appealing to the more hope- 
ful and higher elements of manhood in our dealings 
with even the most degraded of human beings. 

Make treaty with the ill-doer as with a fellow-creature, 
and it is more than probable that he will stand to his 
agreement ; but treat him as a brute and he will 
promptly fulfill your expectations by acting as a brute. 

We have referred thus briefly to these experimental 
efforts for the reform of the dangerous classes, believ- 
ing that Pennsylvania is fully aroused to the necessity 
of such efforts, and, through her legislature, is prepared 
to take a leading part in them. That the necessity is 
urgent, the very name given by popular consent to the 
class which we approach signifies, conveying at once 
their history and the ominous presage of their future. 
Nor is it only in this country that the grave attention 
of governments and of thoughtful men has been 
anxiously directed to this fatal element in the body 



PRISON ECONOMY. 233 

politic. The International Prison Reform Congress, 
although it had its inception in the United States, 
numbered, also, at its late meeting in London, delegates 
(scientific and learned men, — experts in dealing with 
crime, and philanthropists) from every nation in Europe 
but one, and from Chili, Brazil, Australia, and India. 

Nor need we wonder at the startled surprise and 
alarm with which the world regards the criminal mem- 
ber of, or rather outlaw from, society. At no period 
in history has his existence been so perilous to the best 
interests of civilization ; never before has so much 
education been given to him, an education, however, 
abused for want of moral truth to guide or give it 
the proper direction. The criminal is no longer the 
brutalized boor of two centuries ago, whose passions, 
needs, and ambitions were almost wholly animal ; he 
wears no collar of serfdom now, no ineffaceable mark 
of caste; he lives in an age when luxury is attainable 
by the most ignorant, by means of money ; in an age 
when information is abroad in the air; when the inces- 
sant friction of man against man, the quick modes of 
transit and communication, offer opportunities for crime, 
and especially organized crime. To win money or 
power by any means other than that of slow, patient 
industry is the temptation that besets him at every 
turn. Civilization has put her aids and appliances into 
his hands without teaching him how to use them, and 
they become murderous weapons ; and now civilization 
demands for her own sake what is to be done with 
him ? How is he to be tamed and softened and 
brought to look at the world and God with clear 
rational comprehension of his relations to both ? The 



234 PRISON ECONOMY. 

time of his imprisonment is the only opportunity when 
society can work her wholesome regenerating will 
upon him; he is there unable to avert discipline, be it 
wise or foolish ; he has proved the bitterness of evil- 
doinor and, whether remorseful or not, has learned that 
its wages are misery ; he has reached, in short, a halt- 
ing-place in his journey, where he is forced to look 
upon the two paths before him and to choose between 
them. Instruction or discipline from society to the free 
man must necessarily be infrequent, irregular, and 
unauthorized, but the convict is in the grasp of society 
as helpless as a child in its mother's hands. " He can- 
not choose but hear." The period of his imprisonment 
is the golden opportunity, therefore, to supply him with 
the moral truths which are lacking in his training : to 
teach him, through his daily habits, by the very neces- 
sities of his body for food and warmth, that labor — 
steady, faithful labor — is the only means by which com- 
fort can be made certain and the respect of his fellow- 
man insured. 

To this end we would strenuously urge that pro- 
ductive labor should be made sure and constant in 
every prison as a positive reformatory measure, and 
that the criminal shall be taught to regard it as a relief 
and a reward for meritorious conduct, rather than as a 
compulsory infliction ; that the prisoner be taught some 
trade or handicraft (if he have not already skill in one), 
in order to qualify him for gaining on his discharge an 
honest livelihood ; and, also, that he be given as far as 
practicable the elements of practical learning, accom- 
panied always with such moral and religious instruction 
as shall give vital power to all knowledge. 



PRISON ECONOMY. 235 

In conjunction with this general scheme of training, 
that the treatment of each convict in detail should 
appeal to his higher rather than his lower nature, and 
develop the saving principles of self-respect and the 
recognition of a constant overruling power. 

The proceeds of the labor of the convict to be used 
first to defray the expenses of the state on his behalf. 
In the New England States, where the contract system 
is generally used, the excess of earnings of the con- 
victs over their expenses was $39,000, in 1871, Massa- 
chusetts reporting an annual excess ranging as high as 
$20,000 per annum. In Ohio the excess amounts to 
$40,000 per annum. When such gains as these are 
attainable, while the price paid per capita for contract 
labor is but from fifty to eighty cents a day, there 
would be, it is reasonable to conclude, a much larger 
surplusage if the prisoners were working with the 
knowledge that they were themselves to be the gainers 
by their industry. After the indemnity of the state 
from their earnings, we therefore suggest and respect- 
fully urge that the remaining sum be appropriated — 

1. To the convict's family, if such aid be necessary. 

2. To form a sum in reserve for the use of the con- 
vict himself on his discharge. Many discharged pris- 
oners are tempted to crime from the lack of means to 
support life until they can obtain work. It is almost 
impossible (with the prison ban upon him) for the dis- 
charged prisoner to find employment, and he is driven 
to steal by the actual necessity for food. The surplus 
of his own earnings would be a sure preventive of this 



236 PRISON ECONOMY. 

immediate peril. Nor do we perceive the justice of 
applying the product of the convict's labor to the 
service of the state, beyond the sum which indemnifies 
it for his maintenance. The punishment inflicted on 
him for his misdemeanor is imprisonment for a stated 
time and such hardships of lodging, fare, &c, as may 
be deemed suitable. To appropriate his earnings 
during that time (beyond the sum requisite for his 
maintenance) is to impose a fine upon him, in addition 
to the punishment of the body, — a fine not contem- 
plated by law or embraced in his sentence. 

Changes in the primitive and remedial systems such 
as we suggest are of necessity dependent upon you 
for execution, and once enforced will directly affect the 
condition of the convict without influence from the 
agents who are deputed to enforce them. But there 
is much of the treatment of the criminal, the mental 
and moral regimen which he shall receive from day to 
day, which depends wholly on the character, convic- 
tions, or even mood of his keeper. Laws devised 
with the profoundest knowledge of human nature and 
the broadest humanity, and schemes tempered with the 
tenderest charity, can be converted into cruelty by an 
unjust, vindictive, or even coarse jailor. Greater care 
should therefore be exercised in the choice of these 
officials ; a certain standard of culture and moral attain- 
ment should be established by which their fitness for 
their duties may be measured. 

Political usefulness, popularity, or brute strength 
are scarcely to be regarded as qualifications for the 
post of guardians over hospitals filled with the men- 
tally and morally unsound, — invalids whose ailments 



PfilSOJV ECONOMY. 237 

are of the soul, and which require even wiser and more 
skillful and humane treatment than those of the body. 

The appointment of women of discreet and cultured 
minds as visitors and supervisors of the female wards 
of our prisons, jails, and reformatory schools would, as 
we believe, tend much to their improvement. We do 
not conceive that this point requires argument other 
than those which will readily suggest themselves to 
every thoughtful mind. 

The tenderness of nature, the intuitive sense of jus- 
tice and fitness which characterize women, qualify them 
to detect disorder and discrepancies in the administra- 
tion of any scheme of reform, while a certain tact and 
gentleness of expression enable them to approach the 
weak and erring with peculiar success. We owe our 
own improved method of dealing with crime and in- 
sanity largely to the counsel and suggestion of one 
good woman, and there are many others employed in 
practical work of prison reform in Europe with the 
most positive and enduring effect. There are many 
questions concerning the control and treatment of 
women prisoners, of which inspectors of an opposite 
sex can take but superficial view and incomplete cog- 
nizance. It is conceded that the prisoners should be 
under the management of a matron, and if it be proper 
that such control be accorded to women of inferior 
mental status, it is assuredly just and proper that the 
supervision of their labors should be placed in the 
hands of women of high character for intelligence and 
humanity. 

We would call your attention, finally, to the success- 
ful labors of the Prison Reform Association, which had 



238 PRISON ECONOMY. 

its birth in this country, although greater progress has 
been made in foreign countries in the wise and humane 
treatment of crime and pauperism than in the United 
States, and a larger amount of research and practical 
experiment have there been brought to bear on these 
difficult problems. 

The formation of this association, for whose exist- 
ence and development all praise is due to Dr. E. C. 
Wines, was the first step towards concentrating these 
separate discoveries and researches, giving them a 
world-wide publicity, and, by the force of union, en- 
dowing these hitherto scattered efforts of a few philan- 
thropists with the dignity of a science and the authority 
and power of an international movement. 

The conventions in London, Cincinnati, Baltimore, 
and St. Louis included men (eminent for their philan- 
thropy) of widely-differing nationalities. The majority 
of members, too, were men employed for years in the 
management and supervision of prisons or institutions 
of reform, and the controllers of widely-extended 
schemes for the amelioration of the extreme conditions 
of humanity, whether those conditions be induced by 
crime or poverty. 

The association, therefore, brings to the elucidation 
of these problems not only the most earnest, almost 
religious enthusiasm of the work of rehabilitating their 
fallen brethren, but a clear and long-tested knowledge 
of the most practical methods of accomplishing this 
work in both its outline and detail. 

The reformatory scheme of work proposed by the 
members of this International Congress is, briefly : — 
" Penal laws and institutions to be brought into fuller 
accord with reason and humanity. 



PfilSOJV ECONOMY. 239 

" Police systems to be rendered so efficient that few 
criminals can escape detection and punishment. 

"Crime capitalists to be hunted, dispersed, and 
crushed. Preventive agencies to be made so compre- 
hensive and perfect as greatly to diminish the number 
of criminals. 

"The mass of adult criminals to be brought to a 
healthier condition of mind and habit, and restored to 
the walks of useful industry."* 

The association is, however, a council, not an execu- 
tive body; a parliament without constituencies, unless 
we call such the weak and degraded of mankind, for 
whom it labors. 

It can design and submit schemes of reform, but it 
remains for the governments of countries and of states 
to make them of practical benefit. The results of the 
conferences of this association are already apparent in 
many European states. In Switzerland, the congress 
in London aroused public attention to penal reform 
and effected a change in the constitution by which 
capital and corporal punishments were abolished. 

A house of correction, a society for the care of dis- 
charged prisoners, an asylum for neglected and vicious 
children have been introduced in different cantons, 
while, in two, a modification of the Crofton plan has 
been adopted in their penitentiaries. 

In Sweden radical changes in the penitentiary sys- 
tem have been made in accordance with the advanced 
views of the congress. 

Discharged prisoners' associations have been formed, 
and two reformatory schools founded, modeled after 

* Prison Congress, St. Louis, page 44. 



240 PRISON ECONOMY. 

the admirable institution at Mettray. To these last 
the royal family and nobility have contributed liberally. 

In Italy an institution for the education of prison 
officers has been founded. 

It was to his school for prison officers, it will be 
remembered, that Demetz owed his signal success in 
the reform of criminals. 

In Holland a modification of the cellular system and 
other progressive measures of reform are now before 
the legislature. 

In France an earnest interest in penal and prevent- 
ive reform has been awakened by the congress. 

Throughout the civilized world attention has been 
aroused and the minds of sincere, practical, and thought- 
ful men turned towards the most vital of all the prob- 
lems which affect the well-being of humanity. 

In the United States, where the movement origi- 
nated (but which, as we have said, lags behind several 
other nations in her application of the best modes of 
reform), the endeavor of the association is at present 
to secure the erection of a national prison, to which 
shall be removed the convicts sentenced by United 
States courts, and where the association will be en- 
abled to illustrate the highest and most successful sys- 
tem. Such a prison would offer an example which 
would doubtless be speedily imitated by the several 
States and by other governments. 

It is in accordance with the general progressive 
movement in this reform throughout the world that we 
address you on the subject of the aid you have here- 
tofore extended to the reformatory and other chari- 
table institutions of the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania, 



PRISON ECONOMY. 241 

through her late Constitutional Convention, has taken 
a retrogade step in this matter. The whole of her re- 
formatory and charitable institutions, with the excep- 
tion of the Eastern and Western Penitentiaries and the 
State Lunatic Hospitals at Harrisburgand Danville, are 
deprived of State aid unless it is given to them by a 
two-thirds vote of your houses. We appeal to you to 
support them liberally as heretofore ; an appeal which 
we have little doubt will prove effectual. When nations 
which we have been accustomed to regard as but half- 
civilized urge the movement of reform, Pennsylvania 
will assuredly not resign herself passively to the gov- 
ernment of the already encroaching forces of ignor- 
ance and crime. 

We here present a descriptive table of the number 
of the several classes of "criminals" in the State. 
The statement may be relied upon as accurate : — 

POPULATION OF THE CRIMINAL CLASSES. 

The estimated population of the State on September 
30th, 1874, is three million eight hundred and twenty- 
one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven, and the 
following statement will exhibit the number of convicts 
in the penitentiaries, Allegheny county workhouse, and 
county jails or prisons ; the number of persons under 
sentence of justices of peace ; number awaiting trial 
and otherwise in prison on September 30th, 1874, tne 
aggregate forming part of the above-estimated popu- 
lation : — 



242 



PRISON ECONOMY. 



Convicts — In State penitentiaries, . 
Workhouses, . 
County jails, .... 



Males. 



i>°53 
134 

787 



Females. 



IO 

9 
90 



Total of convicts, 

Otherwise in prison — In county jails for payment 

of fines and costs, &c, ■■ . 

Summarily convicted — In county jails, under sen- 
tence of justices of peace, 

In workhouse, under sentence of justices of 

peace, 

In house of correction, under sentence of jus- 
tices of peace, 



Total summarily convicted, 
Awaiting trial in county jails, 



Total in prison September 30th, 1874, 



Total. 



1,063 

J 43 
877 



243 
354 
593 



Aggregate. 



2,083 
67 



1,190 

449 



3.789 



As above stated, the number of convicts in the peni- 
tentiaries, workhouses, and county jails on September 
30th, 1874, was 2083, or one to 1835 °f tne population; 
6y were in county prisons under sentence of court for 
payment of fine and costs, &c. ; these can hardly be 
considered as convicts, and are not, therefore, included 
with them; 1190 were in prison, summarily convicted 
under sentence of magistrate or justices of peace, for 
disorderly conduct, breaches of peace, &c. The num- 
ber awaiting trial on September 30th, 1874, was 449. 

As the most powerful and direct method of combat- 
ing these forces in society, we entreat your brief con- 
sideration of the subject of neglected and destitute 
children. (See Education, page j6.) 



CARE OF THE INSANE 



INSANE HOSPITALS. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

We have shown, in a previous report, the " census ' 
statistics of the insane in each county of the State, the 
total number in 1870 being stated at three thousand 
eight hundred and ninety-five ; the ratio, one insane to 
nine hundred and four inhabitants. This enumeration, 
indeed, is not accurate — the fact being sufficiently 
proved by the impossible discrepancy which appears 
in a comparison of the several counties — the ratio 
varying from one in two thousand to one in twelve 
thousand, in places where there are no asylums for 
their reception. The general ratio is, of course, re- 
duced by computing the insane in asylums, hospitals, 
&c. But erroneous as the statement is, falling short 
of the reality, it is sufficiently suggestive. It manifests 
the unhappy fact that the State makes provision for 
about one-fourth only of these hapless wards — to 
which, if we add the number cared for in incorporated 
or private hospitals, it will appear that at least five- 
eighths of these are in almshouses, or uncared for in 
any institution whatever. What the condition of the 

(243) 



244 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

insane is, as a general rule, in the poor-houses of the 
State, we set forth clearly in our earliest report ; and 
although there has been since then a manifest improve- 
ment in their condition and treatment, in several of 
the county establishments, it is impossible, from the 
circumstances which characterize the whole arrange- 
ment, discipline, and government of such institutions, 
that these invalids can be otherwise than grossly 
neglected and foully wronged ; for at the best they are 
merely confined in places of detention, under the 
guardianship of a respectable overseer, who is wholly 
ignorant of their disease, and of the means necessary 
for its alleviation or its cure. We say, at the best. We 
hesitate to describe the reverse of the picture. It 
would exhibit a scene of as cheerless and uncomforted 
misery as the most bitter misanthrope could desire to 
look upon. It is hardly fair to claim that we have 
passed beyond the ignorance and barbarity of the 
middle ages, in our consideration and care of this class 
of unfortunates, so long as we suffer the glaring abuses 
which are prevalent in our midst to continue unre- 
dressed. 

It is inconceivable to every reflecting mind, that 
abuses can be heaped upon the defenseless victims of 
this saddest of disorders, who should rather be the ob- 
jects of the most spontaneous sympathy, and the most 
willing kindness and consideration. The fact that the 
chances of exposure are too remote to be estimated, 
and, as in the case of the child and the brute, that re- 
sistance is impossible, no doubt gives impunity to the 
foul wrong-doing which the insane frequently suffer. 
But the most fruitful cause of this evil is the incompe- 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 245 

tency of those who are set over them. It is an evil 
almost irremediable, under the present system of ap- 
pointments in the county almshouses. It generally 
happens that these are based solely upon political con- 
siderations. Some useful partisan must be rewarded, 
or in some way helped, and he is given an office, the 
duties of which he feels in no wise called upon to dis- 
charge ; having earned its perquisites by political ser- 
vices before he received it, and feeling his position 
secure, he is quite naturally led to neglect his trust, by 
ignoring its most essential requirements. Unfitness 
of the highest measure is the character of such ap- 
pointments generally ; and the victims in this case are 
a class of defenseless invalids, whose circumstances 
appeal with especial urgency to every sentiment of hu- 
manity and justice. This mode of appointment should 
be abolished, rather than extended, and we earnestly 
invoke the action of your honorable bodies to revoke 
all legislation which favors it. The institutions estab- 
lished by the State and the counties at so great a cost, 
and supported from year to year by large expenditure 
of the public funds, extracted often by onerous taxa- 
tion, should be managed after a principle which will 
secure those objects, to accomplish which they were 
respectively founded. Wherever this does not obtain, 
just so far have waste and failure been realized instead 
of gain and success. This may not always be appar- 
ent to the general observation, for we are not quick to 
scrutinize matters of this nature ; but the results will 
not be questioned if the premises are well-founded, 
and it needs but slight investigation to establish the 
verity of our report in this behalf. The same danger 



246 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

exists, though much more remotely, in establishments 
specially designed for the reception and cure of the 
insane ; and we consider it to be the solemn duty of 
the superintendents of all institutions for this class, to 
know, from patient investigation and inquiry into the 
antecedents of the applicants, that none are employed 
for nurses or attendants who are not adapted to the 
service, by the characters they possess for patience and 
forbearance and strict conscientiousness. They should 
also take pains to instruct them in their duties, and 
should know they are fulfilled. We think that a clear 
responsibility rests upon the directing head of every 
institution, to know that his subordinates fulfill their 
proper duties. If the appointments are not allowed to 
them, it would seem that the danger of ignorance and 
incompetency is greater, and, therefore, closer scrutiny 
becomes essential. But superintendents should have 
the authority, at least, to nominate their subordinates. 
They know better than others the requisites for the 
office; and the responsibility would be felt and authority 
more readily maintained. 

Inattention to these requirements has subjected in- 
stitutions of hitherto high repute to severe public 
odium, not in our own but in other communities, and 
it is a just cause for condemnation. We shrink at the 
recital of occasional cruelties visited upon malefactors, 
even where insubordination or other grievous miscon- 
duct has merited punishment ; and philanthropy is 
expending itself largely in contriving schemes of pun- 
ishment for crime, by which the offender may be 
saved from wanton cruelties ; but for these, innocent 
victims of a providential dispensation, — the chief 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 247 

causes of whose mental derangement have been 
''anxieties, domestic griefs, reverses of fortune," — the 
trust of the general public in the effective and humane 
protection provided in any asylum where they may be 
placed, seems fixed and unwavering. We believe that 
the State and private institutions of this Common- 
wealth are commendably free from the reproach we 
have suggested. We are familiar with their work- 
ings. We know the direction of all of them with 
entire familiarity, and we respect the earnest humanity 
and high intelligence which characterizes them ; but 
we cannot too firmly impress even upon these the 
supreme necessity of insisting, for themselves and for 
those to whom they owe their appointment, upon the 
employment of subordinates of every degree who have 
the ability and the disposition to carry out the instruc- 
tions which they receive -from their superiors. The 
very fact that seclusion from the public eye is the 
characteristic of these institutions should be the 
strongest influence with high-minded and conscien- 
tious men to interpose the broadest shield of gentle- 
ness and humanity between their wards and the 
slightest injustice. Insanity should have a better and 
a truer name than madness. To "mistake ideas for 
truths " does not mean so much as this ; and although 
such perversion not infrequently influences the patient 
to dangerous violence, it is equally true that this irri- 
tation may be tranquilized and subdued by quiet, firm, 
judicious gentleness. Scarcely any are wholly insane. 
There exists somewhere, and almost invariably, a phase 
of their intellect which is not clouded, and their delu- 
sions do not even unfit them always for the ordinary 
duties of life. 



248 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

We think we have a right to present this class of de- 
fectives in a favorable light. The general view exposes 
them unfairly to the public eye ; and that eye is too 
well satisfied to look complacently upon the house of 
detention in which they reside as the summum bonum 
for all their needs. Houses of detention, simply as 
such, misrepresent the real demand of an enlightened 
public mind, in relation to all classes of unfortunates. 
They ignore the principle of the dignity of the human 
person, which should govern the consideration of these 
classes. This discrimination is lost whenever the 
thought prevails that the chief good to be attained is 
to restrain — to save the public, in some sort, from in- 
convenience or damage or depredation. This should 
surely be looked after and secured ; but its complete 
attainment may be better accomplished by considering, 
at the same time, the duty of humanity in the care and 
custody of every class of defectives. There are noble 
examples and exponents of this theory, in this age, in 
all parts of the civilized world, and nowhere more de- 
voted to its realization than in our own country and in 
our own State ; and we believe that a very large num- 
ber of the insane in this Commonwealth are not only 
skillfully, but tenderly treated. But this is not so in 
many of the county poor-houses. They have neither 
the accommodations nor the medical care which are 
suited to their wants. They are, for the most part, 
wholly uncared for. Beyond the mere provision of 
sustenance, often unfit and insufficient, they are kept 
immured in cells (sometimes naked and often in in- 
describable filthiness), or tied to their cots, or intimi- 
dated by fear of punishment, to save the trouble and 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 249 

expense of adequate oversight. They are in the hands 
of attendants as unfit to minister to them as they would 
be to govern a vessel in a hurricane ; and so they are 
stranded or wrecked for want of good and skillful man- 
agement. The condition of such as these is little bet- 
ter than the sad lot of the same class whose misfortune 
it was to exist during what we call the " middle ages" ; 
and, indeed, to the time when Pinel set the splendid 
example of liberating from mechanical restraints the 
inmates of the Bicetre hospital, at Paris, — one of whom 
had been in chains for forty years, — and which was the 
first great step in the amelioration of the condition of 
the insane. But are not the ignorance and stolidity 
and want of principle which so often characterize the 
attendants who now have charge of the insane, or per- 
haps their inaptitude and inexperience, practically 
equivalent to the barbarous practices of the same class 
who were their custodians in the dark aees ? It is true 
they are not now " chained in the lowest dungeons," 
but they are confined, and often bound, in loathsome 
rooms. They are not " systematically beaten with the 
lash, by direction of the most approved authorities," 
but they are often punished by a process much more 
painful and fatal, and frequently upon the slightest 
provocation. They are not " exhibited for money, like 
wild beasts," but they are brought forth from their 
beds at midnight to dance and make grotesque dis- 
plays for the entertainment of the guests of their cus- 
todians. They are even statedly assembled, once a 
week, to amuse the public at a maniac's ball. 

The following case will stand for one of many similar 
performances at county poor-houses ; and, as recent 



250 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

testimony proves, in establishments of higher preten- 
sions. It is the case of a maniac, whose condition 
there was so alarming that his removal to an insane 
hospital was ordered. The physician of the latter 
institution states that the patient was brought to the 
hospital in a cart, with his limbs restrained. He was 
feeble, but greatly excited. His condition at the time 
of admission was so distressed that the usual practice 
of bathing and re-clothing was dispensed with, and, 
after administering a sedative, he was put to bed. As 
soon as it could be done, an examination was made, 
and numerous injuries to his person were apparent ; 
but his exhaustion increased, and it w T as impossible to 
ascertain the whole extent of his injuries. On the 
eighth day the patient died, when an autopsy was 
made, and the sternum and nine ribs were found to be 
broken ; accumulations of pus were discovered in va- 
rious places, and extensive bruises of the most serious 
nature. Such was the condition of this insane man, 
poor, perhaps, and friendless, but, nevertheless, a man 
and a citizen, when transferred from an almshouse to 
a State hospital. 

We cannot better express our own opinions on this 
theme than by quoting the strictures of a journalist 
upon recent abuses, fully proved in a neighboring 
institution: — "One of the noblest results of civili- 
zation has undoubtedly been the care and protection 
extended to the insane. There is something so touch- 
ing in the spectacle of human beings deprived of their 
reason that every one of right feeling must extend to 
them the deepest sympathy. This sympathy brought 
about the establishment of hospitals where the insane 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 25 1 

could be properly cared for and sheltered from the 
dangers that beset them. It was hoped that through 
the instrumentality of these institutions these unfor- 
tunates would escape the neglect and brutality to 
which they were exposed. This, at least, has been the 
popular idea in connection with the guardianship of the 
insane provided for by the public. But, however 
humane may be the intention of the community in 
creating these refuges, the brutality of the persons 
selected as 'attendants' entirely neutralizes the benevo- 
lent motive and turns them into places of torture, 
from which death is looked on as a welcome release by 
the sufferers. It would be idle to waste words on the 
brutes in the shape of men, who are capable of inflict- 
ing torture and suffering on their fellow-creatures. So 
long as the present vicious system is continued, the 
abuses will go on unchecked ; and it is only when 
some act of cruelty has been followed by fatal results 
that public attention will be directed from the whirl of 
business and politics and for the moment visit the 
offense with a generous indignation." 

It is a matter of history that even Egypt of old knew 
and fulfilled her duty better towards these unfortunates, 
and that her "priests" provided faithfully for their 
comfort and enjoyment. Music, games, and recrea- 
tions, — in short, whatever modern ingenuity has devised 
to charm the diseased mind, was in vogue in this 
"earlier age." And in ancient Greece one of the 
most distinguished alienists recommended that bodily 
restraint should be avoided ; that none but the most 
violent should be restrained. 

We conclude this part of our report on this subject 



252 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

by presenting the wise conclusions of another, which 
may well be entertained and realized by those who 
have responsibilities to discharge in relation to this 
interesting and serious matter: — 

"The patients of an asylum for the insane should be 
surrounded by experienced attendants, allowed the 
greatest liberty, and treated with the utmost amount 
of indulgence compatible with their safety. The free 
use of their limbs and abundant exercise in the open 
air tend to carry off the superfluous energy and excite- 
ment of the malady. Everything which can employ 
and interest a healthy mind, and which is apart in its 
character and association from the morbid thoughts of 
the patient, ought to be brought into exercise for his 
recovery — judiciously adapted to each case ; for the 
insane hospital should be the isolation and safety of 
the dangerous; a retreat and home for the hopeless 
and incurable ; a hospital for their restoration to 
mental and physical health; a house for mental, moral, 
and physical education ; an industrial establishment, 
where the busy crafts of artisans and gardeners and 
all the homely employments which can occupy the 
heads and hands of men and women, are called into 
systematic and daily activity. Everything should be 
avoided which would give the idea of a prison. They 
should be made to feel themselves happy and con- 
tented in the prosecution of some purpose which 
carries their mind away from the subject of their 
disease, and which is adapted to their capacities, their 
natural tastes, or the peculiar phase of their malady. 
The qualifications of the medical superintendent — and 
every insane asylum should have such an officer — are, 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 253 

indeed, of the rarest kind, but they are indispensable. 
He must unite benevolence with firmness. He must 
be good and humane and, also, just and inflexible — 
courageous and calm, tempering firmness with severity 
and kindness with decision and impartiality. He must 
have the tact to govern others with ease, to acquire 
their confidence and esteem, and, at the same time, to 
command their ready obedience and respect. Com- 
bined with these general qualifications, he must be 
skilled in his own profession in all its departments, so 
as to give the advantage of enlightened professional 
skill to the medical treatment of his patients." 

These requisites seem difficult to command ; but if 
the natural elements are not wanting, the rest may be 
acquired. And the same principle and the same rule 
should apply here which we have insisted upon in our 
notice of a different class of institutions. Almost the 
whole hope of successful management of any one of 
them depends upon the suitableness of the directing 
head of the establishment. The power which appoints 
this officer should see to it that he understands and 
appreciates his work and its responsibilities. In such 
case there is small chance of his subordinates beine 
ignorant or neglectful of their duties. 

The law of commitment to an insane asylum would 
seem to need revision. If it were carried out accord- 
ing to its spirit, it might be sufficiently protective of the 
rights of the citizen, of which it behooves us to be 
strictly jealous. This law provides " that insane per- 
sons may be placed in a hospital for the insane by 
their legal guardians, or by their relatives or friends 
in case they have no guardians, but never without the 



254 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

certificate of two or more reputable physicans, after 
a personal examination, made within one week of the 
date thereof, and this certificate to be duly acknowl- 
edged and sworn to or affirmed before some magistrate 
or judicial officer, who shall certify to the genuineness 
of the signature and to the respectability of the signers." 

In the first place, the medical test is clearly insuffi- 
cient. If the two " reputable " physicians were in good 
repute as alienists, there would be reason in submitting 
to their judgment the liberty of a citizen. But it is 
well known that insanity is the most unfamiliar of all 
maladies ; that there is no chair in our schools for 
instruction in this branch of medical science; that it 
has always been a special study, and that not one in a 
hundred of the "reputable physicians" know anything 
about it, which should entitle them to the authority 
conferred on them by the law. Still, we have instances 
where commitments have been made by doctors by 
diploma, who never had a patient of any sort to pre- 
scribe for, unless dentists be physicians, or chiropo- 
dists be classed with surgeons. 

We would not cater to the sensational apprehen- 
sions of careless thinkers on this subject. We do not 
believe that in our State there is at this time much real 
danger, in this behalf, to the freedom of any sane 
person ; for we happen to be favored with enlightened 
experts in each of the important institutions, private 
and public, of the State, who would undoubtedly take 
means to redress a wrong perpetrated either by igno- 
rance or design. Still it is necessary to provide for 
contineencies, and if the medical test is even uncertain, 
the importance of amending it will be admitted without 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 255 

reserve, for the authority is final when the require- 
ments of the law are even formally complied with, and 
the " adjudged " lunatic must be received into the luna- 
tic wards. 

The legal examination is equally unreliable. There 
is no evidence received in behalf of the restrained 
person. The charge is almost uniformly taken for 
granted, and the " lunatic " almost never seen by the 
magistrate. The reason is that the magistrate is quite 
unable, of himself, to pass judgment on the case, and 
he does not embarrass himself by the attempt. 

We would, under these circumstances, recommend 
that a lunacy commission, in each county, be appointed 
by the officers of the medical society in conjunction 
with the superintendents of the State hospitals for the 
insane, which shall be substituted for the " two reputa- 
ble physicians " required by the present law ; and that 
the magistrate be held to a penalty unless he complies 
literally with the provisions which are set forth for his 
action in the premises. In the counties where medical 
societies are not organized, that the commissioners be 
appointed by the superintendents alone. In cases of 
sudden and violent mania, temporary detention in a 
hospital should be provided for, — the requirements of 
the law to be complied with within reasonable time 
thereafter. 

Safe as we may fairly regard ourselves, it should be 
our aim to improve, by the example of our legislation 
and our practice under it, the insufficiency of what pre- 
vails in other States as well as to add to our own 
security. We may thus effectually bar the personal 
liberty of every citizen against unjust invasion. 



256 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

It is a superstition resulting from ignorant credulity, 
which takes for granted every accusation of lunacy, and 
which regards the disclaimer of the accused as added 
evidence of his mental alienation. 

Provision being made for present security, in ob- 
vious cases of mania, it cannot be denied that the 
doubtful should be held in suspense until adequate 
judgment be pronounced ; especially when the accused 
denies the charge and demands investigation by an 
arbitrament capable of pronouncing an intelligent de- 
cision. The most perverted and chronic criminal can 
claim this right, and the bare possibility of mistake 
should secure it for those whose liberty may be inno- 
cently lost. 

We called the attention of your honorable bodies to 
the condition of the insane poor in the first words we 
addressed to you. 

We did not speak in terms of reproach of the public 
or the legislature, because there had been, until then, 
no official commission, expressly delegated by your 
own authority, to investigate their condition and make 
suggestions of amendment. We then recommended 
that the insane should be always under the care of a 
medical superintendent ; that no recent case be admit- 
ted into an almshouse ; that the State hospitals be ade- 
quately extended that all might be provided for. But 
we are concerned lest the unwillingness of the last 
legislature to appropriate the money needed to com- 
plete even so much of the hospital for the insane at 
Danville as would utilize the expenditures already 
made there, and, what is more important, open a door 
for the reception of the large number of insane de- 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 257 

manding admission, indicates a serious unconcern in 
relation to this class of unfortunates, or a want of 
appreciation of their claims upon the State's attention. 
We earnestly. renew our request to your honorable 
bodies to furnish, with as little delay as possible, the 
hospital room urgently needed for the accommodation 
of all the insane of the Commonwealth, excepting only 
those who are received into private hospitals, or cared 
for by the larger cities, who propose to provide for the 
insane of their particular localities. 

We are prepared, upon a call of either branch of 
the legislature, to report upon the whole subject, stat- 
ing the numbers and condition of this class ; how they 
are now circumstanced; what proportion are probably 
chronic and what curable cases ; what additional ac- 
commodations are needed, and, if required, a scheme 
for realizing the demand which is made upon the State 
for the complete fulfillment of this imperative duty. 

It is a question with those who make the subject a 
particular study, whether the incurable insane should 
or should not be separately provided for, and many 
specialists have given their opinion that the interests of 
the class, as a whole, would be better maintained by 
associating them in general hospitals for the insane. 
It is not our intention to discuss this question at this 
time ; what we declare now, we are entirely clear about, 
namely, that it is a reproach to the boasted liberality, 
humanity, and civilization of our honored State, that 
such of her unhappy children as we refer to, should be 
consigned to the hopeless wretchedness which they 
suffer, and that it becomes us, without delay, to apply 
an effectual remedy. It may be well, in this connection, 



258 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

to set forth the measures which the great State of New 
York has adopted to relieve this crying evil, and by 
which it is certain that every insane man, woman, and 
child will, within a reasonable time, be provided with 
a hospital home, furnished with every requisite for its 
intelligent administration and management. The fixed 
policy of that State is to separate the chronic insane 
poor from the recent and curable cases. 

A select committee of the senate, appointed for this 
purpose, made report in 1856 as follows: — " That as 
insanity is a disease, which, in all its forms and stages 
requires special means for the care and treatment of 
its victims, the policy of the State to provide for their 
safety, comfort, and care, when possible, is as wise as 
it is humane. The duty of the government, thus to 
provide for its insane, is acknowledged in all civilized 
countries. 

"That the State should make ample and suitable 
provision for all its insane not in a condition to reside 
in private families. 

" That no insane person should be treated, or in any 
way taken care of in any county poor or alms house, 
or other receptacle provided for, or in which paupers 
are maintained or supported." 

It is a well-established principle that the insane can- 
not recover amid the ordinary circumstances and 
influences of home, but they must be removed from 
familiar associations and scenes to others which are 
new and strange to them. This disease, instead of 
being a malady necessarily consigning its victims to 
despair of recovery is, under favorable circumstances, 
the most curable of diseases. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 259 

Authorities upon the statistics of insanity state the 
results of proper hospital treatment at about seventy- 
five per cent, of recent cases in favor of recovery. It 
is stated in a memorial to the legislature, emanating 
from high official authority and medical experience on 
the subject, that it may be expected that one in every 
one thousand six hundred and ninety persons in Penn- 
sylvania will yearly become insane, and that under an 
adequate system of treatment three-fourths of these 
will annually recover, and the remainder become hope- 
lessly incurable. That, in the absence of such a system, 
not over seven per cent, would recover, and the re- 
mainder sink into hopeless incurability. The perfect 
accuracy of the estimate is not material, it is sufficiently 
correct to sustain our argument. The calculation can 
be readily made as to how the pecuniary interests of 
the State would be affected in the two cases, and what- 
ever modification was made in the interests of the 
insane would proportionally advance the interests of 
the State, so that it can be easily inferred that the 
insane become a public burden because of the neglect 
of timely medical treatment. There is nothing more 
true than that the State or the county must pay for the 
support of the sufferer during life, unless suitable pro- 
vision for cure and treatment induce timely restoration. 
It is, therefore, no more than the common wisdom that 
is applied to the ordinary business of life, to take such 
measures as will give them the best opportunity of 
restoration that the age affords. 

Assurances such as these, which could not fail to im- 
press the mind of every intelligent man to conviction, 
induced the New York Legislature to pass an act 



260 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

instituting a commission to investigate the condition of 
the insane poor in the various poor-houses, almshouses, 
and insane asylums, and other institutions where the 
insane are kept. The condition of the insane poor in 
the counties of New York was, in a word, pronounced 
" deplorable," and their report was the origin and base 
of what is called the Willard asylum for the insane, 
taking its name from the author of the report. The 
law in reference to this subject was passed in 1865, and 
its title declares it to be " an act to authorize the estab- 
lishment of a State asylum for the chronic insane 
poor." 

The intent of the law was further stated to be the 
removal of every insane pauper from every county 
poor-house to the Willard asylum, or to the State 
lunatic hospitals, — to the latter the recent or curable, 
and to the former the chronic or incurable cases. 

There has been no retreat from this determination 
on the part of this great Commonwealth ; but an ex- 
tensive hospital has been built on a farm of about five 
hundred acres, admirably located for health and beauty, 
and the most liberal appropriations have been con- 
tinuously made by the legislature for the full develop- 
ment of the policy and intent of the law, by which every 
one of the insane poor shall, in due time, be properly 
provided for. 

The policy of separating the curable from the chronic 
need not enter into discussion. The point is, to furnish 
hospital accommodations for this class, and the legisla- 
ture can investigate the subject through a separate 
commission, or through the agency of this board. 
Since the existence of the Board of Public Charities of 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 261 

the State of New York, viz., since 1868, it has been the 
organ of communication with the legislature. Its last 
report on this subject declares that no further provision 
need be made for founding a new insane hospital ; that 
when those now in course of construction are com- 
pleted, in accordance with the plans, provision will be 
secured for every insane person in the Commonwealth 
of New York. State of Pennsylvania, go and do like- 
wise ! 



PLEA FOR THE INSANE. 

Insanity in its relation to legislation and jurispru- 
dence, as well as to mental, moral, and medical science, 
to its characteristics and the mode of determining its 
presence, as well as the method of treatment for its 
cure, to the best means of protecting society against 
its violent or mischievous assaults, as well as to the 
claims upon our humane regard and sympathy, is a 
subject of great difficulty, but, at the same time, of 
commensurate interest and importance. 

It is not easy to give a clear definition of insanity, 
and when we attempt it, the danger is that we run into 
one extreme or another, and either allow none to be 
insane but the raving maniac, or make all insane who 
commit anything foolish or wrong. But we need not 
attempt a definition here. 

Whenever the condition of the ravine maniac is so 
far approximated, and the reason so far disordered or 
dethroned, that the apprehension of the distinction be- 
tween right and wrong is lost, either wholly and in all 



262 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

relations, or partially and in relation to some particular 
subjects, then insanity so far exists as to demand to be 
specially recognized by the administration of justice, 
in the means to be provided for the protection of 
society, and in determining the treatment due to those 
who are its subjects. 

The diagnosis of such cases we may leave to ex- 
perts, and the determination of the facts to the proper 
officials, judges, or juries. We have nothing here to do 
with the question of insanity as it is presented to the 
psychologist or to a petit jury or to a commission de 
lunatico inquirendo, or to a board of medical examiners. 
In the cases to which we propose to call attention, we 
assume the fact of insanity to be established, and then, 
looking at the insane man afterwards, we inquire what 
is to be done. 

But we must protest, at the outset, against a certain 
form of mistaken feeling which, we suspect, may very 
generally exist ; we refer to the disposition to regard 
all persons who, being charged with crime, are acquit- 
ted on the ground of insanity, as at least highly sus- 
picious characters, to be classed with criminals without 
reserve, because it happens that the greatest criminals 
so often seek to evade the punishment due to their 
crimes by setting up the plea of insanity. 

But this sweeping generalization is no more reason- 
able — especially in the case of the poor, who have no 
powerful friends to work for them, and cannot pay 
liberal fees for an elaborate defense — than it would be 
to regard all men as criminals and suspicious charac- 
ters who are charged with any crime, however clearly 
their innocence may be demonstrated ; for this plea of 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 263 

insanity is, by no means, the only plea which is abused 
for the protection of knavery and violence. 

As to the specious modern plea of moral insanity, 
either it must be absolutely rejected, or, to be consistent, 
all administration of penal jurisprudence must be aban- 
doned. Any insanity that can be recognized in law, 
must include a derangement or loss of the rational 
faculties, and by such derangement or loss it must be 
measured. A " moral insanity " which consists merely 
in an abnormal violence of vicious propensities, or of 
some particular vicious propensity, while yet the light 
of reason remains unabridged, and the conscious moral 
judgment is clear and distinct, is only another expres- 
sion either for diabolical wickedness, or for the ordinary 
condition of human temptation. 

But, waiving all such discussions, the subject which 
we desire to present to the practical consideration of 
the legislature is this: What public provision should be 
made for the care and treatment of the insane, especially 
of the insane poor, including those who have been con- 
victed of crime or charged with its commission ? 

In order to a clear exposition and apprehension of 
the subject which we thus desire to present, it will be 
advisable, and even necessary, to analyze it, and to 
distribute the insane into their several classes, with 
reference to the end we have in view, — to the public 
provision to be made for their safe-keeping, care, and 
treatment. With this view, the insane may be dis- 
tributed into three different classes: — 

1. Those who have done no violence or public 
harm — the ordinary insane. These, again, fall into 



264 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

two sub-classes: — i. The harmless, or those from 
whom no harm is feared. 2. The harmful — those 
with manifestly dangerous and destructive propen- 
sities. 

2. Those who have done harm — have committed 
crime — while sane, but (1) have become insane before 
trial or conviction ; or (2) have become insane after 
conviction, — " insane convicts " in the strict legal 
sense. 

3. Those who, having done harm — having committed 
acts of violence or mischief — have been acquitted of 
crime on the ground of insanity. 

And first, of the insane who have done no harm. 
Among these, the insanity may vary in character and 
degree from some simple special hallucination down to 
complete dementia. It may include both sexes and all 
ages; may proceed from a variety of causes, moral 
and physical, may be recent or may have become 
chronic, may be more or less violent or dangerous, may 
be curable in various degrees, or may be absolutely in- 
curable. These varieties may call for various medical 
classifications and modifications of treatment, all of 
which we leave to medical men to arrange and deter- 
mine. The classification which more directly concerns 
us, viewing the subject in its relation to the demand for 
legislative interposition or State aid, is — 

1. Those who have the means of support, and 

2. Those who are dependent and destitute. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 265 

The first class can be cared for, either at home by 
their friends, or at private asylums established for the 
purpose. The only occasion for legislative interpo- 
sition in their behalf is, to see that they have proper 
guardianship to secure them in the possession and 
right use of their property. And the only occasion 
for such interposition for the protection of the com- 
munity in this regard is, on the one hand, to see that 
friends, who undertake their guardianship, do not 
neglect it to the peril of the community, or abuse it to 
the detriment of the sufferer ; and, on the other hand, 
to provide lest by the criminal collusion or interested 
misjudgment of relations and physicians, any sane per- 
son should, under certain circumstances of helplessness 
or exposure, be condemned to the living death of incar- 
ceration in some private hospital for the insane, — a 
fate next in horror to that of being buried alive. As 
to what legislation is required in relation to this class, 
we have only to refer to the suggestions presented in 
our last report. 

But, however important the claims of this class may 
be upon the public consideration, they are as nothing 
in comparison with those of the other class of the 
harmless insane, viz., the destitute and dependent. 

To these and their sad fate we beg once more, 
respectfully, but most earnestly, to urge the serious 
and special attention of the legislature. In our former 
reports, we have not overlooked the claims of these 
helpless victims of the sorest of human maladies ; 
but, in the discharge of our official duty, we have 
repeatedly, though hitherto, perhaps, without sufficient 
fullness and emphasis, presented those claims to the 



266 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

consideration of the legislature, and we now beg to 
refer to our former statements and suggestions on this 
subject. 

In our report for 1870: — "More especially do we 
wish to denounce the cruel wrongs which the insane 
suffer who are inmates of almshouses. These institu- 
tions are generally wholly unsuitable for their care or 
even detention ; or, if suitable, are presided over by 
persons who are entirely ignorant of the needs of this 
class of the sick and infirm, and whose administration 
is based on the crudest ideas of mental disease ; it is 
limited to the discovery of the most available methods 
of preventing them from harming anything or any 
person but themselves. We could instance the most 
glaring abuses, not as we believe intentionally inflicted, 
but the result of incapacity and ignorance. The time 
has gone by when a disturbed imagination or a disor- 
dered intellect should be held to have converted its 
human victim into a distempered brute, whose home 
should be akin to the sty or the stable, and whose 
lightest restraint should be perpetual incarceration 
within the limits of a cell. These wrongs demand 
prompt redress. No hospital for the insane should 
remain without the constant supervision of a medical 
superintendent. The stewards of almshouses are 
never selected from any consideration of the needs of 
the insane." 

The report was also accompanied with the following 
formal resolutions of the board : — 

"Resolved, That the Board of Public Charities, having 
witnessed the evils which result from the connection of 
insane asylums with almshouses, and believing that a 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 267 

wrong is done to the insane by classing them with 
paupers, hindering the public from estimating aright 
their claims to sympathy and remedial treatment, dis- 
approve of such an alliance, and believe that the best 
interests of this afflicted class of people and the duty 
of the State, concur in the establishment by the State, 
within a reasonable time, of sufficient accommodations 
for the maintenance and treatment of all the insane 
who may not be cared for in private hospitals. 

"Resolved, That in the judgment of the board all 
superintendents of hospitals of the insane should be 
members of the medical profession." 

In 1 871 the following from our general agent was 
laid before the legislature : — 

"In some of our prisons cases of insanity are found 
which ought to be transferred to hospitals established 
for the maintenance and treatment of this class of 
persons. In the course of my inspection of these 
institutions, as will be seen by a reference to my 
report, instances of this character have been noticed. 
It occasionally happens that insane persons have to be, 
at least temporarily, committed to a prison ; but few 
cases can arise where this necessity exists for any great 
length of time. If they have been arrested for a 
crime, the law has made ample provision for a proper 
disposition of them without a protracted confinement 
in a county jail, and the sooner they are removed there- 
from the better, whether their incarceration is the 
result of crime or merely for the purpose of safe-keep- 
ing. All the better feelings of humanity, as well as a 
sound philanthropy, concur in this sentiment. 

"Among the various defects in our poor-houses 



268 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

none are to be more deplored than that which relates 
to the provision made for the insane. Scarcely one 
can be mentioned which is not deficient in this partic- 
ular. The sexes, as the custom is in the other depart- 
ments, are frequently allowed to mingle together; few 
have suitable accommodations for their comfort, and 
even in the best of them there is a lack of sufficient 
attendance. New buildings have been erected in 
several counties with a view to increased facilities for 
the support of this class, but even here, in some cases, 
persons have been selected who have no experience 
and but little qualification for the duties to which they 
have been assigned. 

" The attention which I have given to this grave 
subject induces me to believe that all cases of an acute 
character should be placed in one of the public institu- 
tions which have been established in the State, city, or 
county, with a view to their treatment. To place a 
recent case where no suitable medical treatment or 
other proper attendance can be had, is either simply to 
leave it to nature or facilitate its passage into a chronic 
condition. To render an institution suitable for the 
successful management of such cases, nearly all the 
means essential for such a purpose are wanting. A 
proper construction of the building, where a favorable 
classification of the inmates can be maintained; where 
all the modern improvements for in-door comforts and 
amusements and out-door exercise and recreation, and 
where competent medical and other attendance can 
always be procured, are necessary to attain the great 
object in view — a restoration to health and a sound 
mind. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 269 

" For the most part all that can be expected in our 
county almshouses is to secure such provision for the 
chronic and incurable insane as will meet the demands 
of a Christian humanity. To confine them in close 
and badly-ventilated apartments, with scarcely any of 
the comforts which an enlightened philanthropy would 
suggest — a condition in which they are too often 
found — manifests such a failure of duty as to bring 
odium and shame upon the civilization of the age. 

" In New York, a State institution was established in 
1865, under the name of the Willard Asylum for the 
Insane, for the reception, care, and treatment of the 
chronic insane poor, who were then provided for in the 
several county poor-houses in the State. This institu- 
tion is reported to be in successful operation. Whether 
the plan of separating this class of insane from the more 
acute and hopeful cases, and keeping them in different 
institutions, is best adapted to the successful treatment 
of the insane population, is a question much discussed 
among experts of the present day. The medical su- 
perintendents of our insane hospitals, after a full and 
able discussion of the subject, came to the conclusion 
that such a classification would be detrimental to the 
interests of both classes. With such able authority 
against such a measure, I am not prepared to endorse 
the action of the New York Legislature, but prefer to 
leave the subject for further experience, and the candid 
consideration of philanthopists." 

As to the statistics in regard to this class of un- 
fortunates, this board hereby renews the offer made 
last year: — "We are prepared, upon a call of either 
branch of the legislature, to report upon the whole 



270 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

subject, stating- the numbers and condition of this class, 
how they are circumstanced, what proportion are prob- 
ably chronic and what curable cases, what additional 
accommodations are needed, and, if required, a scheme 
for realizing the demand which is made upon the State 
for the complete fulfillment of this imperative duty." 

But as to the number of helpless sufferers, these de- 
pendent wards of the State, we may say beforehand, 
and without reference to statistics, that, if the number 
is some thousands, their moral claim upon the State, as 
a matter of simple duty on her part, is multiplied so 
many thousand fold ; and if the number is small, there 
is the less excuse for shrinking from the performance of 
that duty — for making proper and complete provision 
for the care and treatment of them all. 

If these persons are to be allowed to live among us, 
if they are not to be left, some to starve and perish, 
and others to spread their mischief far and wide, it is 
for the interest of the State that public provision should 
be made for their detention and maintenance ; and if 
they are to be detained and supported at the public 
expense, it is for the interest — the palpable pecuniary 
interest — of the State that they should have appropri- 
ate and comfortable accommodations, kind supervision, 
and the most patient and skillful curative treatment. 
This may be demonstrated in a few words. We may 
take two facts as well ascertained, and we believe they 
are admitted without a dissenting voice, first, that under 
care and skillful treatment, as in our best hospitals, 
about seventy-five per cent, of recent cases of insanity 
will be cured in the first six or twelve months ; second, 
in poor-houses not more than seven per cent, will be 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 2JI 

cured in the first year. Assuming these premises, and 
making the expense of each patient in the hospital 
twice what it would be in the almshouse, the gain in the 
first instance, under hospital treatment, is simply enor- 
mous. But this is not all. There are likely to be more 
cures afterwards under the skillful treatment than under 
the other. But suppose there were not, and that all the 
remaining cases were incurable, there would remain, 
on one side, ninety-three incurables to be maintained 
for life, and, on the other, twenty-five; and if the ratio 
of expense were still double, the result would be in 
favor of hospital treatment as fifty to ninety-three. 
That is to say, the latter method would be a continual 
saving to the State for many subsequent years of more 
than forty-six per cent, per annum. Nor is this all. 
It must be remembered that the greater part of the 
insane poor owe their poverty to their insanity, and 
not their insanity to their poverty ; and that, in losing 
their power to support themselves, they have lost, also, 
in a very large proportion of cases, the power to sup- 
port families more or less numerous, who thus become 
dependent upon the public for their maintenance. The 
restored maniac resumes not only the enjoyment of a 
man's consciousness but of a man's activity — the power 
of self-support ; and not only of this, but of support- 
ing by his industry those dependent upon him ; and 
every man who, by his enterprise, skill, and labor, sup- 
ports himself and family, contributes also to the support 
of other men and their families. Such are the eco- 
nomical advantages accruing to the State from a proper 
treatment of the insane poor and their consequent 
restoration to mental health. 



272 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

But these unfortunate persons have claims upon the 
State higher far than mere considerations of economy. 
They are her wards, and she is bound by the dictates 
of simple justice and imperative duty to secure to 
them that humane, watchful, and patient care, and that 
skillful treatment which will give the best promise of 
their speedy restoration. If she choose to put them 
out of the way, like noxious beasts, or to let them alone 
to starve and die, she might say that charity and philan- 
thropy were no part of her mission, and ask who made 
her their keeper. But when she has laid her hand 
upon them, put them in places of restraint and deten- 
tion, and taken control and charge of them, she has 
made herself their keeper, and has bound herself so to 
treat them as shall most conduce to their future well- 
being as well as to her own. 

As to their actual condition in our county poor- 
houses or prisons, we do not propose to weary the 
patience or offend the sensibilities of the honorable 
members of the legislature by the renewed recital of 
the more than three-times-thrice-told tale of the woes 
and sufferings of this sorely-stricken class of our fel- 
low-citizens. That the story, with all its touching and 
terrible details, ranging from the intensely sad to the 
unspeakably horrible, should have been so often re- 
peated, and yet the evil remain to so large a degree 
unremedied, instead of exciting our impatience, should 
rouse our shame, and provoke us to immediate and 
energetic action. The story can never grow old or 
worn, as long as the subject-matter itself remains a 
fresh and living reality. There is but one voice in this 
case. No intelligent person has ever made a general 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 273 

visitation of the prisons and almshouses of this State 
without being startled and almost overwhelmed by the 
forlorn and hopeless, and sometimes horrible, condition 
of their insane inmates. Those who some years since 
made a similar visitation in the State of New York, 
pronounced their condition "deplorable," and that State 
forthwith determined to apply an effectual remedy. 
The impression made upon this board by similar visit- 
ations in our own State, have been laid before the 
legislature in our reports from year to year. The 
shocking and sickening revelations, so graphically set 
forth in the memorial of Miss Dix, presented to the 
legislature of 1845, are not Y et obsolete. There have 
been some improvements since made in some of these 
places. In the Philadelphia almshouse, since then, 
there has been a great reform ; and in several other 
counties, well-constructed hospitals for the sick and 
insane have heen built ; but, with one or two excep- 
tions, there is no special medical supervision or paid 
attendance at all. But in most parts of the State that 
condition remains now substantially the same as then. 
Indeed, without a total revolution of the system, it is 
impossible greatly to improve it. There may be grave 
faults in the management in these poor-houses, some 
of which might be remedied, and others are probably 
incapable of remedy ; but the great cause, the funda- 
mental cause of the evil, is in the system itself. If the 
administration was made as perfect as human infirmity 
allows, if the best superintendents or wardens and the 
most faithful attendants were secured, while the evil 
might be mitigated, it would remain substantially the 
same, until the system itself is changed. The remedy 
is not reform, but revolution. 



274 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

We take leave to insert here the report made in the 
course of the present year by a member of this board, 
of his personal inspection of one of our county poor- 
houses: — 

" With respect to the strictly pauper department of 
this almshouse, it bore a resemblance to other estab- 
lishments. There was a scene of listless idleness and 
uselessness, without any superintending care. My 
attention was particularly directed by the general agent 
to the hospital for the insane, which was a separate 
building, upon the same ground with the other depart- 
ments of the almshouse. I found these inmates suffer- 
ing for the want of almost every attention and con- 
sideration which are necessary to make life, even to 
the strong and hardy, tolerable. They have sufficient 
food, such as it is, at stated intervals, and the cells they 
occupy are furnished generally with a rough bed and 
bed-clothes. These cells, too, are tolei^ably clean, for 
the cleaning of an establishment such as this can be 
done without much difficulty, because there is always a 
sufficient number of paupers to do the work. Where 
the insane patients are considered violent or even dis- 
agreeable, it often happens that their cells are either 
neglected, or forcible measures are resorted to for the 
purpose of overcoming their interference, while their 
cells are being cleaned by the paupers. Though the 
board had previously called the attention of the direct- 
ors of this institution to the imperfect ventilation of 
the insane hospital, I found that even the means avail- 
able for correcting the cause of this complaint had been 
very imperfectly attended to. The consequence was 
that the atmosphere of most of the cells had become so 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 275 

vitiated and offensive that any person accustomed to 
the open air would necessarily have fainted upon re- 
maining within the apartment for a moment of time. 
The inmates seemed to have become used to this nox- 
ious atmosphere, and they did not complain of it. On 
the contrary, the only complaint on their part was that 
made by an old woman, when her window was lowered 
a little to admit the fresh air. 

"The responsibility for this chronic neglect of these 
classes begins with the public and ends with the hum- 
blest attendant of the institution. So lost to all sense 
of decency have the insane of this hospital become, by 
reason of the failure on the part of those in authority 
to encourage a proper appreciation of self-respect 
among the inmates, that their habits are precisely like 
those of a brute. Consequently many of them are 
kept naked in their cells, from which they are drawn 
out each morning to be cleaned and their rooms put 
in order. The filthiest part of the litter — for their 
bedding consists wholly of straw — is then removed 
and its place supplied with a similar quantity of the 
fresh material, when they are returned to their disgust- 
ing dens, there to pass another period of solitary 
wretchedness in an atmosphere whose odor exceeds 
in offensiveness anything which the imagination can 
conceive. Through the gradual enfeebling of the 
higher attributes of their natures, some of these people 
come to be regarded by the other inmates as mere 
animals, and the young girls of the establishment look 
upon these naked men simply as they would look upon 
a horse or a hog. I am told that frequently two of the 
young female inmates of this insane hospital are called 



276 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

upon to clean these men each morning as they are 
drawn out from their cells." 

The following statement of the condition of the in- 
sane in another poor-house, is given on the well- 
sustained authority of another member of the board: — 

" In February last, a visit was paid this almshouse, 
and an insane inmate was seen, — a young woman over 
twenty years of age, whose whole dress consisted of a 
thin chemise with short sleeves, a single skirt, and a 
pair of shoes. When brought before the visitors a 
borrowed cloak was thrown over her shoulders. She 
was blue with cold and utterly filthy in person. Her 
cell had the appearance of having undergone a recent 
hasty washing, but was pervaded with an odor loath- 
some in the extreme. On the day of this visit the 
thermometer fell to fourteen degrees. 

" In March another visit was paid to the institution 
by several gentlemen in a body. Only one portion of 
the building was visited, which is supposed to be de- 
voted exclusively to women. In one cell was a young 
woman, the one already referred to. Her cell was 
without any furniture whatever, her bed consisted of 
one blanket, her clothing a ragged chemise open to her 
waist, and one scanty skirt and a pair of shoes. She 
was indescribably unclean, and alive with vermin. Her 
cell reeked with a sickening odor, the result of a total 
absence of all conveniences of cleanliness. She 
shivered with cold, while in the presence of her visitors, 
the thermometer standing, at the time, several degrees 
below the freezing point. 

"Opposite to the cell, which we have very faintly 
described, was another. The short day had already 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 277 

faded into dusk, and as the light was thrown through 
a little aperture in the door, it fell upon two wretched 
women, both of whom were absolutely without a single 
garment to cover them. One of the poor creatures 
sat crouching in the corner with a small blanket drawn 
across her shoulders, while the other was crawling on 
all fours on the floor, without even this poor apology 
of any remnant of human decency ! There was not 
a particle of furniture in the cell ; and there, on this 
wintry March night, in an atmosphere which the wit- 
nesses declare to have been utterly horrible, were 
these two human beings, brought down far below the 
level of our domestic brutes. 

" In an adjoining cell the visitors found a man lying 
on an old mattress, the only sign of furniture which 
they saw in either of the rooms inspected. They 
were informed that the inmate was a woman, but upon 
one of the gentlemen calling to him, he sat up, and it 
was seen that it was a man. The attendant, with some 
confusion, explained that he must have been brought 
in while he was away. 

" We found the female insane department in a shock- 
ing condition ; so bad that it would be impossible to 
give a description of the place on paper. In some 
cells there were two or more women confined, some 
without any clothing, lying on the floor without mat- 
tress, carpet, or anything else, except an old Govern- 
ment blanket. The place had a horrible, putrid odor. 

"We examined one woman who was quite young. I 
was afraid to go near her, as she seemed covered with 
vermin. We were all much shocked by the visit, and 
I think I shall remember it as long- as I live." 



278 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

And the general agent reports the following amongst 
many similar instances of abuses and neglect in the 
same establishments : — 

"Insane totally neglected morally, physically, and 
medically ; less attention is given to them than would 
be given to the lowest animals ; four are, incapable of 
self-care, confined in filthy cells ; one, a female, has 
great neighborhood notoriety, from sad incidents con- 
nected with her history ; known as an intelligent, 
esteemed, and attractive young lady, the daughter of 
a well-known inhabitant of the neighborhood, she fell 
a victim to the arts of the seducer. Insanity is alleged 
to be caused by her disappointment. This occurred 
twenty-one years ago. The sad case is rendered still 
more painful by her present forlorn condition. A bed 
of straw upon a damp, dirty floor, into which the ex- 
ternal light can find no entrance, is the only furniture. 
A seat, a chair, or a bench, has apparently never been 
furnished ; the consequence of which is, that the mus- 
cles of the lower extremities, from the cramped posi- 
tion in which she was always found, have become 
permanently contracted, so that the only movement of 
which she is capable is one similar to that of a frog." 

"An unusually large number of insane, many of 
chronic form, but quite a number of strongly-marked 
cases, who were confined and had been chained to the 
floor until released by my direction. A young girl of 
seventeen years of age, confined in a gloomy cell, 
since removed, by my request, to the State hospital, 
where she is gradually being restored." 

" Twenty-two insane, twelve are kept in close con- 
finement, some in chains ; one always chained to the 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 279 

ceiling to prevent him from tearing his clothes ; some 
entirely nude ; at least six with straw litters ; not one 
of the twelve was ever removed into the open air. All 
confined in apartments opposite each other, a narrow 
corridor extending between them. The effect of this 
close proximity was to make the day and night hideous 
with the distressing shrieks and yells of the wretched 
and maltreated madmen. 

" Eight insane, one of whom hand-cuffed, one hop- 
pled ; one female confined to her room." 

"One hundred and thirty-five inmates, four blind, one 
palsied, seven idiots ; seven cells in the basement, with 
insane in each, in a revolting condition." 

" Twenty insane ; of these about eight were confined, 
not to their uncomfortable cells only, but restrained by 
iron fetters, long after the necessity had passed away. 
These were removed at my instigation, and the doors 
of their cells were opened, to give them the benefit of 
the open air and exercise, with decided improvement 
in their condition." 

There are two difficulties in the way of checking 
these and similar abominations: one is the unwilling- 
ness of the directors of the poor to make expenditures 
for the comfort and well-being- of the classes committed 
to their charge. They employ a steward, whose prin- 
cipal requisite is that he shall be a good farmer, and 
whose attention must be given mainly to the farm of 
the institution, which may be, in extent, from one hun- 
dred to four hundred acres. As a consequence, the 
care and supervision of the human beings over whom 
this " steward " is placed are lost sight of, to a great 
degree, in the apparently more important business of 



280 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

the farm, and are generally committed to the oversight 
of the paupers themselves. This is one evil. The 
other is apparent in the very unsuitable arrangement 
and construction in which the most helpless inmates — 
we mean the insane — are placed. In these structures 
it is a rare thing to find the sexes at all adequately 
separated, and, generally, they have no airing grounds, 
or even yards, to which the patients can repair and 
refresh themselves during the day. Therefore they 
must remain in seclusion within their cells, from the 
beginning to the end of the year, existing in an atmos- 
phere of great impurity, and constantly deteriorating 
in their mental and physical condition. 

In order to make the work of the board effective, a 
certain amount of executive power should be granted 
to it, as has recently been conferred upon the New 
York Board of Public Charities by the legislature of 
that State. The public seem to be satisfied with houses 
of detention. To get the various classes of unfortu- 
nates out of sight seems to be the main object. The 
consequence is, that, as a general rule, the prison is 
better than the poor-house as a receptacle for the 
insane. 

We may lay it down as a principle, at length become 
too plain to be controverted, indeed, as a point admit- 
ted on all hands, that poor-houses are not, and cannot 
be made, fit places for the care and treatment of the 
insane. That they may receive proper treatment with 
any hope of recovery, they must be placed in hospitals 
or asylums, especially constructed and fitted up for 
their accommodation, with cheerful scenes within and 
cheerful scenery around, with skilled medical supervi- 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 28 1 

sion and carefully selected and well-trained attendants; 
none of which conditions can be commanded in, or in 
connection with, an ordinary county poor-house. In 
connection with so lar^e an establishment as the Phila- 
delphia almshouse, where are gathered nearly one-half 
of all the pauper population of the State, a separate 
hospital of the required character may be provided and 
supported ; and we commend the humane and earnest 
spirit which is engaged in two or three of the larger 
communities, as, for instance, Berks and Lancaster 
counties, in making adequate provision for their in- 
sane. But in connection with the smaller almshouses 
of the several counties, and still more in connection 
with the township arrangements for the care of the 
poor, such separate hospital accommodations are out 
of the question. They will never be established, and, 
if they were, they could not be maintained. 

It will naturally be asked here, whether the State has 
not already established one or more general hospitals 
for the care of the insane, with a view to meeting this 
precise difficulty ? She has ; and established them, 
professedly, for this very class of the insane whose 
case we are now considering, — for the insane poor, the 
insane who had been or are liable to be eathered into 
the almshouses, or sent for safe-keeping to the prisons, 
in the several counties. The State has established 
these hospitals at no little expense ; but a very small 
percentage of the " poor " insane are now in them ; the 
great mass still remain in their former wretched, forlorn, 
and hopeless quarters, a spectacle of misery or a butt 
of derision ; and an element of disturbance and irrita- 
tion to the rest of the inmates. To the hospital at 



282 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

Harrisburg there were committed by the public authori- 
ties and courts during the year 1872, sixty-one poor 
patients ; and one hundred and thirty-eight " paying " 
patients were sent there by " friends." And of the 
four hundred and eight remaining on December 31st, 
1872, there were one hundred and seventy-nine sup- 
ported by "public authorities," and two hundred and 
twenty-nine by " friends of patients." Again, of the 
one hundred and sixteen patients committed to this 
hospital during the nine months ending September 
30th, 1873, eighty-four were "paying" and only thirty- 
two public or indigent insane patients. 

Now it is manifest from the memoral of Miss Dix, 
in response to which the State hospital was estab- 
lished, and by the express words of the law of 1845, 
coeval with its establishment, that the original design 
of the hospital was what that of any such hospital 
ought, in all reason, to be, — to provide for the insane 
poor. 

The law, section twenty-five, declares that, in order of 
admission the "poor" shall have precedence of the 
"rich," defined throughout the act "paying patients," and 
while the finances of the State do not permit ample pro- 
vision for all cases of insanity, recent cases shall have 
precedence over cases of long standing. If, under this 
law, the whole capacity of the hospital were devoted to 
the "poor," no objection, perhaps, could be made to 
sending away the incurable, after a reasonable period of 
trial, to make room for recent cases; although it does 
not appear that such was the intention of the law, 
which seems to have merely laid down a " rule " to 
govern the order of admission to vacancies as they 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 283 

should be found to exist. But how should it happen 
that a majority of the inmates of this State institution 
should be " paying patients '? 

How happens it that during the year 1872 sixty- 
nine per cent, of the patients admitted were paying 
patients, and only thirty-one per cent, public patients, 
and of those admitted during the nine months ending 
September 30th, 1873, the paying patients should in- 
crease to seventy-two per cent., with corresponding re- 
duction of public patients to twenty-eight per cent.? 
Again, that at the close of the year 1872, this hospital 
should be occupied with fifty-five per cent, of paying 
patients, and at the end of September 30th, 1873, with 
fifty-six per cent, of the same class ? 

It is said that the incurables are sent away to make 
room for recent cases. But upon what authority? 
And, besides, if those sent to the hospital by their 
friends are recent and curable cases, in a larger pro- 
portion than the others, how comes it that a smaller 
percentage of these are discharged during the year ? 
Or, if they are incurable in a large proportion than 
those committed by the public authorities, why are they 
not sent away in still greater proportion than the 
others, instead of being discharged in still less propor- 
tion ? Or, rather, why are they not all sent away ; or 
rather kept away, as long as any of the others remain 
unprovided for? We understand that, as a general 
rule, those committed to this hospital by the county 
authorities, if not " speedily " cured, are sent back to 
the helpless and hopeless life-doom of the poor-houses. 
On the other hand, it is evident that " paying " patients 
may stay as long, apparently, as their comfort and the 



284 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

convenience of their friends require, and their means 
suffice for their support. Now we cannot but regard 
all this as a gross public wrong. The State has erect- 
ed hospitals, not for the "rich" but for the "poor;" 
or, for the rich, only when the poor should all be pro- 
vided for. There is no need, even if it were right, 
that the State should erect hospitals at the public ex- 
pense and out of the public taxes, for the accommoda- 
tion of the rich ; they can or they will provide hospitals 
for themselves, including persons of moderate means 
as well as of considerable wealth. We maintain that 
the entire capacity of the State hospitals should be ap- 
propriated to the poor patients, before any such are 
refused admission or sent away under any pretext 
whatever. The hospital at Dixmont, though a private 
charitable corporation, and only aided by the State, 
comes much nearer to our idea of the duty and the in- 
tention of the State in this regard than that at Harris- 
burg. At the former, there remained, at the close of 
the year 1872, only one hundred and seventeen private 
patients out of a total of four hundred and forty-six ; 
and on September 30th, 1873, only 23.89 per cent, of 
"paying" patients, or one hundred and eight out of a 
total of four hundred and fifty-two. 

And again, of the one hundred and sixteen patients 
received into the State hospital, at Harrisburg, during 
the nine months ending September 30th, 1873, eighty- 
four, or nearly three-fourths, were "paying" patients; 
while for the same period out of one hundred and 
seventy-three patients admitted to the hospital at Dix- 
mont, only seventy-two, or about two-fifths, were "pay- 
ing" patients. In other words, 30.79 per cent, more 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 285 

private patients were received into the State hospital for 
the "insane poor," at Harrisburg, than into the private 
hospital for the insane (aided by the State) at Dixmont. 

It may be said, and perhaps with truth, that in many 
cases the friends of insane patients who can furnish the 
smaller sum required at the State hospital for their 
support would not be able to meet the heavier charges 
of a private asylum ; and that, therefore, such insane 
patients must be thus admitted at the hospital or sent 
to the poor-house. This idea seems highly plausible 
and might at first receive favor from inconsiderate 
persons. But upon reflection it clearly appears un- 
sound in theory; and upon experience it proves highly 
objectionable. If these patients are poor why should 
precisely this class of poor patients have precedence 
of those who are still poorer ? And if they are rich, 
as by the terms of the statute all "paying" patients 
are, then the law expressly gives the poor the preced- 
ence over them. Besides all these middle measures of 
giving public aid to the poor are found in practice to 
be dangerous and liable to great abuses on the part 
both of the recipients and the almoners of the public 
bounty. This case has proved itself in our judgment 
no exception to the general rule. 

It may be suggested that it has been thought well to 
have some paying patients in order to give respecta- 
bility to the institution. 

We can scarcely listen to the suggestion with pa- 
tience or answer it with calmness. If all the poor were 
already provided for and accommodated the suggestion 
might pass, although we should not make it. We 
should never propose that the State should tax herself 



286 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

to furnish hospital accommodations to the rich in any 
case, whether by way of gratuity or of profitable 
speculation. But that is not the case. The poor are 
not all enjoying the care and treatment of the hos- 
pitals ; and shall they by the hundred and the thousand 
continue to languish into idiocy or rave out their mis- 
erable lives in the cells of prisons with malefactors and 
felons, or in the more foul and wretched and hopeless 
receptacles of county poor-houses, in order that the 
hospital, which receives a few score of them, may be 
respectable, and its superintendents and officers may 
not find themselves in charge of an institution of mere 
paupers ? 

But, finally, it may be said, as a partial explanation 
of the great comparative rapidity with which the poor 
who are committed to the hospital are sent away, that 
a large part of them — those committed by the courts — 
are persons charged with crime who have been ac- 
quitted on the ground of insanity. Under the present 
law this explanation must to a certain extent be 
accepted; but as these persons do not fall under the 
general class of the insane now under consideration, 
viz., those who have done no harm and are free from 
any charge of crime, their case is reserved for con- 
sideration in the sequel. 

In the class of harmless insane we include, it will be 
remembered, all those who are legally charged with no 
acts of mischief,' violence, or crime; as well, therefore, 
those from whom such acts may be apprehended as 
those who, from their apparently gentle and inoffensive 
habits, are the objects of no such fear. Whether there 
be any of the insane so entirely harmless that they 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 287 

can be trusted with absolute confidence, needing no 
special watch or restraint, some have doubted, and we 
need not decide or discuss the question ; for, in our 
clear judgment, there is no good reason why those 
who may need greater degrees of watchful care and 
restraint should not be treated in the same establish- 
ments with those who may need less, especially as the 
distinction is merely one of varying degrees. Even 
those who exhibit the greatest developments of insane 
cunning for mischief or are subject to the fiercest 
paroxysms of violence or even of homicidal impulse, 
may be kept, with proper classifications and internal 
arrangements, in the same institution with patients of 
the greatest gentleness and quietness of temper and 
demeanor. At all events, the proper hospital, with its 
more skillful superintendence and its more varied and 
thorough appliances, is, of all others, precisely the 
place for the former class ; for in poor-houses they can 
scarcely be kept at all, except as wild beasts, and 
prisons are not places to which justice or humanity can 
doom the innocent and helpless madman, however vio- 
lent or dangerous. Yet are not such poor, defense- 
less unfortunates, if adjudged too dangerous to go at 
large and pronounced not curable, habitually sent to 
rave and rot in the foul dens of a poor-house or in the 
dungeons of a prison, there to be classed with robbers 
and murderers ? 

The importance of having the State hospitals for the 
insane subjected in this and in other respects to the 
supervision of some party not connected with the 
immediate management, so that the rights of the 
poor may be more surely, steadily, and systematically 



288 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

protected, we reserve for fuller consideration further on. 
But we cannot omit to observe here, that the State 
hospitals for the insane poor were not devised originally 
at the suggestion of experts, but upon the pains-taking 
investigations and earnest petitions of Miss Dix and 
other benevolent persons ; and it is highly reasonable 
that their management, particularly as regards the re- 
ceiving and discharging of patients, should be placed 
under the visitorial power of disinterested parties, 
concerned only in securing the good to be derived 
from them for the defenseless insane poor. It is not 
to be supposed, however, that, under any management, 
sufficient provision has yet been made in our State hos- 
pitals for all the insane poor in the Commonwealth. 

Such provision ought to be made with all possible 
dispatch. To propose to make it is no wild or vision- 
ary or extravagant scheme. It can be made in Penn- 
sylvania as well as in New York. As we have already 
shown, if we are to take care of the insane poor at 
all at the public expense, the most economical method, 
irrespective of the demands of humanity, is to gather 
them into well-managed hospitals, instead of leaving 
them to linger out a miserable existence, hopeless of 
restoration, in prisons and poor-houses. 

We proceed now to consider the case of the two 
other classes of the insane. 

II. Those who, while sane, have committed acts of 
violence or crime, but have either 

i. Become insane before arraignment, and so have 
never been tried ; or, 



CARE OE THE INSANE. 289 

2. Have become insane after conviction — insane 
convicts. 

III. Those who were insane at the time of commit- 
ting such acts, and who, therefore, have been acquitted 
of crime on the ground of their insanity. These fall 
into various sub-divisions to be mentioned hereafter. 

The two classes (1) those who stand charged or con- 
victed of committing acts of violence or mischief while 
sane ; and (2) those who, although charged with crime 
for the commission of such acts, have been acquitted 
on the ground of insanity at the time of their commis- 
sion, we place together, not to identify or confound 
them under any such denomination as " criminal in- 
sane," but rather in order the more emphatically to 
contra-distinguish them. 

We begin with the case of the first of these classes ; 
and the question is, what disposition is to be made of 
the insane who stand charged with, or have been con- 
victed of, crime. And first of those who may, with 
some propriety, be called " the criminal insane," i. e. } 
those who are charged with the commission of crime 
while sane, but who have become insane before arraign- 
ment; and who, consequently, have never been con- 
victed or tried. Their case is a somewhat delicate one 
in a legal as well as a moral point of view. According 
to legal principles, it would seem that their detention 
cannot be regarded as a punishment, for they are not 
to be presumed guilty because they are charged with 
crime, nor until they are found guilty upon trial and 
proof; but in their present condition they are not 



290 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

capable of pleading, and, of course, cannot be put 
upon their trial. Both as accused and as dangerous 
persons, they may properly be kept under detention 
and restraint ; but neither in fact nor in feeling are they 
to be classed with felons or looked upon as tainted 
with crime, or as suffering a penalty. The fact of their 
present lunacy may be ascertained and established 
without the intervention of a jury, by the court itself, 
or by a commission appointed for the purpose ; but 
their having committed the criminal acts laid to their 
charge, and having committed them in a sound state of 
mind, can be ascertained and determined only by the 
intervention and verdict of a jury; and any investiga- 
tion or inquiry in that direction, instituted without such 
intervention, and without a hearing of the defendant, 
must necessarily be merely ex parte. And it is but the 
natural course of things, when a poor, friendless man, 
in his squalor and raggedness, is arraigned before a 
court, under the charge of some atrocious crime, ac- 
companied by the confident allegation that, whatever 
may be his present mental condition, he was sane up 
to and at the time of the commission of the acts 
charged against him — it is but the natural course of 
things, that such a man is easily believed and presumed 
to be guilty ; and as society must at all events be pro- 
tected from his violence, whether sane or insane, he is 
consigned, side by side, with the convicts and felons, to 
the safe-keeping of a prison cell. 

But surely this ought not to be so — in all reason it 
ought not to be so. The State owes it to her own self- 
respect, to her own sense of justice, if not to her senti- 
ments of humanity, not to consign to the odium and 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 29 1 

punishment of crime, one of her citizens whose guilt 
has never been duly ascertained. What then shall be 
done with such persons ? That is a serious question, 
and we shall endeavor to answer it. But, for the 
present, we only say, what is clear in the face of the 
matter, that they ought not to be placed in prison, or 
in any department of a prison ; and they ought to be 
placed where they not only will be effectually restrained 
from doing harm, but where they will have the best 
curative treatment, and the best prospect of being re- 
stored from their fearful malady. 

The case of insane convicts — that is, of those who 
become insane after conviction and while undergoing 
the punishment of crime — is different from the foregoing 
in several important particulars. For these the ques- 
tion of guilt is presumed to have been duly ascertained, 
and that they are suffering a just punishment, but in 
the midst of it the mind loses its balance, and they 
become lunatics. Supposing this point to be ascer- 
tained and admitted — and the feigning of madness is 
pretty easily detected — then they are no longer re- 
sponsible beings ; they are no longer proper subjects 
of prison discipline. It is utterly unreasonable and 
unjust, as well as inhuman, to continue to inflict punish- 
ment on a maniac, who neither knows the reason, nor 
the end, nor the idea of rightful punishment. It is 
as absurd as to inflict indignities or violence upon the 
dead body of a criminal ; it is even more malignant, for 
the dead body has no sense of pain, but the maniac has. 

Besides, the State owes it to these helpless beings, 
who, while under her enforced control and guardian- 
ship, have been smitten down with the most terrible of 



292 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

maladies — owes it to them as a mere matter of right, — 
to give them the most skillful and promising curative 
treatment in her power, to save them, if possible, from 
confirmed and permanent mania or imbecility. To 
suffer a convict to become, from neglect, an incurable 
lunatic is worse, unspeakably worse, than to dismiss 
him, at the expiration of his sentence, bereft of sight 
or hearing, or crippled by loss of limbs, or under some 
chronic bodily disease, in consequence of a reckless 
neglect of the proper medical care and treatment at 
the proper time. These irremediable losses and dis- 
abilities formed no part of his sentence. 

The State is bound, so far as she reasonably can, to 
discharge the convict, at the close of his term of 
punishment, in at least as good a condition — mental, 
moral, and physical — as that in which she received him. 
And, for failing in this, it will not do to seek an excuse 
in the small number, or the unworthy character of 
those who may suffer the wrong. The State, the very 
fountain of justice, she who takes it upon herself to 
punish wrongs, is bound to do no wrong even to one, 
and that one the meanest and most undeserving of her 
citizens. If there are but few convicts who need 
surgical or medical treatment, whether for bodily or 
mental diseases, so much the less excuse is there, at 
least on the ground of economy, for neglecting them.* 

Nor is this all. Even of those who are strictly in- 
sane convicts in the legal sense, and it is of those only 
we are now treating, i. e n of those who have been con- 
victed of crime, as having been sane both at the time 
of the commission and the conviction, but being found 
insane afterwards, — even of these it would be easy to 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 293 

show that by far the larger number were probably in- 
sane before conviction, and even at the time of the 
commission of the alleged offense. It is the rich and 
respectable offender, who has friends and money, who 
can fee lawyers, who can procure and array a crowd of 
witnesses in his behalf, who can protract his trial, clog 
the wheels of justice, and make interest by his audacity — 
it is he who too often escapes from merited punishment 
under a mistaken verdict of insanity. But the poor 
friendless man, who has been seized in some terrible 
act of atrocity, though committed under the impulse of 
actual insanity, is swiftly arraigned; and, having nobody 
of any consideration or influence who personally cares 
for him to stand by him or advise him ; without testi- 
mony, and, from his very unsoundness of mind, per- 
haps, neither caring nor knowing how to procure it; 
the evidence against him ample and clear, his defense 
provided by the court being merely professional and 
perfunctory, and, of course, under such circumstances, 
both hasty and imperfect, he is forthwith convicted and 
sentenced to the penitentiary or the gallows. That 
this is no fancy picture, but a familiar matter of fact, is 
established by an abundance of proof. The uniform 
testimony of those who have charge of jails and 
penitentiaries is, that almost all the so-called insane 
•convicts under their charge were insane when brought 
to prison, and so were almost certainly insane when 
tried, and probably so when they committed the 
offenses for which they were convicted. 

Dr. Compton, in charge of the State Lunatic Asy- 
lum of Mississippi, says : — " My own experience with 
insane criminals leads me to feel rather charitable 



294 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

towards them. I have had only three, and there have 
been circumstances connected with each of these cases 
which lead me to think they were insane before com- 
mitting the crime." 

Of the eighteen prisoners reported insane in the 
Eastern Penitentiary in 1852, the inspectors declare 
that " three had been placed in the penitentiary for 
safe-keeping only, and not for crime, and had already 
been confined in its cells — one nearly three, one over 
three, and one over seven years ! Eleven of the re- 
maining fifteen were more or less insane when they 
were received into the penitentiary, two of the others 
became so a few months after, one a year, and one 
about four years after his reception. It will thus be 
seen that a large proportion were insane in a greater 
or less degree when first sentenced to the penitentiary, 
and all but one or two of the rest developed it shortly 
after. The observation and experience of the inspect- 
ors have convinced them that the commission of crime 
is more frequently connected with mental disease than 
courts and juries (far less the public) suspect: hence 
the necessity of a prompt removal of all, who are found 
to be thus afflicted, to a place where proper treatment 
may restore them to mental health, and, as a conse- 
quence, to moral rectitude." Nor did this state of 
affairs cease at a later period. In their report for 
1862, the inspectors repeat that "there are yearly 
received into this penitentiary insane convicts, insane 
or of diseased mental condition, on their admission." 
And again, in 1863: — " The inspectors again ask the 
legislature to require the State Lunatic Asylum to take 
insane convicts, or to make an appropriation for their 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 295 

medical treatment in the penitentiary. When so many 
convicts are known to be insane on reception into this 
prison, this course is wise, humane, and necessary." 

There are now about twenty of these " insane crimi- 
nals " in the two penitentiaries, all of whom, according 
to the reports of the wardens, were insane or imbecile 
when received there. We insert here the report of 
Mr. Townsend, warden of the Eastern Penitentiary, 
made on this subject in October last, and also that of 
Captain Wright, warden of the Western Penitentiary, 
made on November 24th. 



Report of Warden Townsend. 

"E. S. Penitentiary, October 24th, 1873. 

" To George L. Harrison, Esq., 

" President of the Board of State Charities, 

" Dear Sir : — I sent you a list, some time ago, of 
eleven persons confined in this penitentiary who were 
more or less insane. Since that time one has died, 
and one was pardoned by the governor of the State, 
leaving- now in confinement nine. The one who was 
pardoned is now an inmate of an insane asylum. The 
nine who remain were all noted on our physician's 
book as ' insane', or ' mentally unsound] at the time of 
admission. One was sent here twenty-three years and 
ten months ago, charged with assault and battery with 
intent to kill, and sentenced, not for a term of years, 
but for safe-keeping ; he is a harmless imbecile. One 
was sent here from Luzerne county for ten years, on a 



296 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

charge of burglary and larceny. The object seemed 
to be to rid the neighborhood of a troublesome fellow. 
One sent from Northampton county for ten years on 
charge of rape. One from Bradford county, charged 
with child-murder, holding his own child under water, 
to see the effect of it, thus proving the insanity of the 
act; his sentence is twelve years. A woman from 
Luzerne county, for shooting her husband, sentenced 
to eleven years and eleven months. She is very crazy, 
and not a fit subject for penitentiary discipline. 

" One woman on several charges of larceny, sen- 
tenced to nine years. This woman has been an inmate 
of an insane asylum. One from Luzerne county, for 
' injury to railroad.' He piled lumber on the road to 
see how it would be scattered by the engine (a crazy 
man's trick). One from Philadelphia, for aggravated 
assault and battery, sentenced to seven years, very 
weak-minded on admission, and easily provoked to 
violence. One from Philadelphia, for wife-murder, 
sentence ten years ; insane on admission. These in- 
dividuals have received such care and attention as we 
were enabled to give them, but we have no accommo- 
dations for insane patients — no rooms larger than the 
ordinary cells. They have had such medical care as 
our resident physician was able to give them, but we 
have no suitable nurses, nor places for any. I consider 
it very improper, very unkind, very cruel, to send in- 
sane persons to a jail or penitentiary. It is almost 
certain to fasten the malady upon them, until it becomes 
irremediable. A hospital, with hospital appliances, is 
the only place for these poor stricken ones. 

" I think that a hospital for the insane should not be 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 297 

connected in any way with a prison, but be entirely 
separate, and under separate administration. 

" Could not a part of the Danville Asylum be thus 
used? 

" Hoping these interrogatories are sufficiently an- 
swered, I remain, very truly and respectfully, thy friend, 

"EDWARD TOWNSEND, 

"Warden" 



Report of Warden Wright. 

"Allegheny, Pa., November 24th, 1873. 

" Geo. L. Harris on, Esq., 

" President of Board of Public Charities, 

"Dear Sir: — In your letter of 17th of October, 
you request that I give you my views on the subject of 
the treatment of the criminal insane confined in peni- 
tentiaries and jails. 

"The subject has often been referred to in the 
annual reports of this penitentiary, and the inspectors, 
in their report for 1844, say: — 'If, in the present 
pecuniary embarrassment of the Commonwealth, you 
cannot erect and endow a State asylum for the insane, 
we must urge upon you the propriety and necessity of 
authorizing us to establish, within the prison walls, a 
hospital for the reception of the limited number of 
demented convicts which may unhappily come under 
our supervision. The occurrence is rare that they 



298 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

become so after they enter the penitentiary ; but, in 
many instances, they are sent here after the commission 
of crime, because there is no other barrier to protect 
society from their demoniac depredations. There is a 
convict of this character now immured in one of our 
cells, for such is the sentence of the law. He came 
here in this lamentable condition.' In the report for 
1857 it is said, 'convicts are often sent here whose 
proper destination should be the State Lunatic Hospi- 
tal. Why they are sent here, whether for the purpose 
of supposed relief to the treasury of the county from 
which they come ; from culpable ignorance of the law 
regulating the State Lunatic Asylum, or from the 
suggestion, flattering to us, that we will take good care 
of them, and that society at large will be exempt from 
the dangers incident to a too close proximity to mad- 
men ; it is a practice alike contrary to the policy of the 
law and the dictates of humanity.' 

" I have thus far made up, as briefly as practicable, 
from our own reports, evidence that insanity has proven 
no bar to conviction and confinement in the peniten- 
tiary, and do not doubt further evidence could be 
given showing that harmless imbecile prisoners have 
been received and discharged without further record 
than such as was given to other prisoners. 

" As having a direct bearing upon the views expressed 
in a former report, that prisons are often used as 
asylums, the following extract from the report of the 
warden of the Eastern Penitentiary, for the year 1871, 
bears pertinent testimony: — ' Men are frequently sent to 
this penitentary who are not fit subjects for its discip- 
line. During the year four men were received who 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 299 

were quite insane when admitted ; one in unsound 
mind ; and four of weak intellect. One of these insane 
prisoners died of tetanus, resulting from injuries inflicted 
upon himself shortly after his reception, and another 
committed suicide in one month after he came here. 
Of the nine hundred and eleven confined in 1871, 
twelve were insane when admitted; four of unsound 
mind ; two feeble-minded, and thirty-six of weak in- 
tellect, bordering on idiocy.' 

" In the annual report of the Eastern Penitentiary 
for 1872, it is stated that two hundred and twenty-six 
convicts were received during the year, of whom one 
was of unsound mind, four were weak-minded, fifteen 
were dull, and two doubtful, making nearly ten per 
cent, of impaired intellect. Of the two hundred and 
seventeen convicts discharged, one insane died, two 
were weak-minded, and thirteen were dull, being nearly 
seven and a half per cent, of the discharged impaired 
in intellect. 

11 Under the provisions of the act of 1852, four 
prisoners were removed in December, 1859, of whom 
the physician of the prison states : — ' It would be absurd 
to assert that no case of insanity ever occurred in this 
prison ; but to show the probable effect of the discipline 
in these cases, I will refer to their condition on admis- 
sion : — No. 1 41 9, general good health, but appears to 
be of unsound mind ; circumstances had led to the 
belief of insanity before he was brought to the prison. 
No. 1485, general good health. No. 1987, good health, 
but owing to his inability to speak English, his mental 
condition was not recognized, but I now have no doubt 
he was insane when admitted. No. 2094, insane.' 



300 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

One of the above-noted prisoners, No. 1485, was re- 
turned to the prison exactly three months after his 
transfer to the hospital, of whom it is afterwards 
entered that he died in the prison, insane, in January, 
1862, after an imprisonment of ten years and nine 
months. The physician notes in his official report, 
' upon his return here, he was decidedly insane.' (Dix- 
mont Hospital was not then open.) 

" The physician's record of insane prisoners as given 
to your board, and printed on page fourteen of report 
for 1870, in brief, shows that one prisoner died in 1862 
(previously noted as received in good health in 1851), 
and seven others were received from 1863 to 1868; 
five were sent to Dixmont by order of the governor, 
and two were discharged insane. All were insane or 
of feeble intellect when admitted. 

" The physician notices eight cases of the various 
forms of insanity under treatment in 187 1, who are 
stated to have been received insane ; four were trans- 
ferred from the Eastern Penitentiary ; one had been 
in several insane asylums ; one when received was a 
mental and physical wreck (since dead); one had been 
held in jail a long time, owing to uncertainty, is still 
confined, a complete imbecile ; one had been unsound 
as to his mental health. He was sent to Dixmont, 
where he remained for several years. None of the 
cases originated in this prison. The report for 1872 
contains further mention of the four cases remaining 
over from the preceding year. 

" The records of jails and other institutions within 
the Commonwealth, if culled from the official reports 
to your board, would furnish abundant evidence of 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 301 

the need for a change in the present method of treat- 
ment of the criminal insane. 

" I doubt not you will recommend some important 
changes, and whether you favor the erection of a State 
asylum for the ' criminal insane,' or endeavor to meet 
the present exigency by procuring the setting apart of 
a wing in one or more of the existing State lunatic 
hospitals, I trust you will arrive at a satisfactory solu- 
tion of this important question, and submit a plan wise 
in its details and ennobling in its humanity. 
" Very respectfully, 

" EDWARD S. WRIGHT, 

"Warden" 

We pass now to the consideration of the third class 
of insane persons, viz., of those who, having committed 
acts of violence or mischief, are acquitted of crime on 
the ground of insanity. 

Here we presume that those persons who commit 
such acts under a partial aberration of mind or a 
monomania or a sudden impulse, which did not destroy 
or disable the power of rational moral judgment; or 
under a temporary delirious excitement, resulting from 
their own deliberate action, and the cause of which was 
under their own control, as in a fit of intoxication, are 
not to be regarded as properly insane, and should not 
be acquitted of crime on that ground. But acts com- 
mitted in a state of proper insanity — that is to say, 
when the whole rational faculty is so deranged that the 
moral judgment, the power of discrimination between 
right and wrong, is, by the visitation of Providence, 
utterly blotted out or partially paralyzed ; such acts, 



302 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

however destructive or atrocious, cannot, without great 
impropriety and even absurdity, be denominated crimes; 
and those who so commit them cannot be classed among 
criminals. An "insane criminal" as an expression in- 
tended to describe a person as having committed a 
crime while in a state of insanity, is a contradiction in 
terms. 

How the facts are to be ascertained in these cases 
or what are the proper evidences, is not a point which 
concerns us at present ; such questions belong to courts, 
juries, and experts ; but if the facts have been ascer- 
tained and adjudicated ; if there is admitted to have 
existed in the person arraigned such a general mental 
derangement as obliterated the moral judgment, or any 
other mania which involved the loss or subversion of 
the moral judgment and control, in relation to those 
acts to which the impulse or propensity points, whether 
such be judged and found curable or incurable, and 
whether the lunatic be adjudged dangerous or harm- 
less ; then such acts cannot be reckoned crimes, and 
the person who has committed them cannot, without 
gross injustice and inhumanity, be regarded or treated 
as a criminal. And such is presumed to be the case 
of all those who are acquitted of crime on the ground 
of insanity. Yet, under our laws and the administra- 
tion of justice (!) in this Commonwealth, numbers of 
these innocent and pitiable sufferers are so regarded 
and treated, — especially those who are tainted with the 
sin of poverty as well as the crime of insanity. This 
is, at the present moment, one of the foulest blots upon 
the escutcheon of our State, — a blot which, instead of 
being in process of gradual effacement, has been made 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 303 

darker and deeper by our more recent legislation. All 
the improvement and tendency to improvement in this 
respect which resulted and promised to result from the 
just and merciful laws of 1845 an d 1852, have been re- 
tracted and reversed by the law of 1861. 

The cases of insanity to which we now refer may be 
variously classified; but the law fixes its attention 
chiefly on that form of mania which is more or less 
dangerous and requires more or less restraint for the 
protection of the community as well as for the safety 
of the patient. 

And that the case may be brought clearly and in one 
view under the eye of the members of the legislature, 
we may be excused for here reciting somewhat at 
large the present provisions of our laws on this subject 
as they stand in the statute-book. 

Proceedings Against Criminal Lunatics. 
Act of 1836. 

(At the time this act was passed there was no State hospital for the insane, 
and for want of such institutions they were sent to the penitentiaries and jails.) 

Section 58. In every case in which it shall be given 
in evidence, upon the trial of any person charged with 
any crime or misdemeanor, that such person was 
insane at the time of the commission of such offense, 
and such person shall be acquitted, the jury shall be 
required to find specially whether such person was 
insane at the time of the commission of such offense, 
and to declare whether such person was acquitted by 
them on the ground of such insanity, and if they shall 



304 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

so find and declare, the court before whom the trial 
was had shall have power to order such persons to be 
kept in strict custody, in such place and in such 
manner as to the said court shall seem fit, at the 
expense of the county in which the trial was had, so 
long as such person shall continue to be of unsound 
mind. 

Sec. 59. The same proceedings may be had, if any 
person indicted for an offense shall, upon arraign- 
ment, be found to be a lunatic by a jury lawfully im- 
paneled for the purpose ; or if upon the trial of any 
person so indicted such person shall appear to the 
jury, charged with such indictment, to be a lunatic ; in 
which case, the court shall direct such finding to be re- 
corded, and may proceed as aforesaid. 

Sec. 60. In every case in which any person, charged 
with any offense, shall be brought before the court, to 
be discharged for want of prosecution, and shall, by 
the oath or affirmation of one or more credible persons, 
appear to be insane, the court shall order the prosecu- 
ting attorney to send before the grand jury a written 
allegation of such insanity, in the nature of a bill of- 
indictment, and thereupon the said grand jury shall 
make inquiry into the case, as in cases of crime, and 
make presentments of their finding to said court ; and 
if said grand jury shall affirm said written allegation, 
they shall endorse the same thereon, thereupon the 
court shall order a jury to be impaneled to try the in- 
sanity of such person. But before a trial thereof be 
ordered, the court shall direct notice thereof to be 
given to the next of kin of such person, by publication 
or otherwise, as the case may require. And if the jury 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 305 

shall find such person to be insane, the like proceed- 
ings may be had as aforesaid. 

Sec. 61. Provided, That if the kindred or friends of 
any person, who may have been acquitted, as aforesaid, 
on the ground of insanity, or in default of such, the 
guardians, overseers, or supervisors of any county, 
township, or place, shall give security in such amount 
as shall be satisfactory to the court, with condition that 
such lunatic shall be restrained from the commission of 
any offense, by seclusion or otherwise ; in such case it 
shall be lawful for the court to make an order for the 
enlargement of such lunatic, and his delivery to his 
kindred or friends ; or, as the case may be, to such 
guardian, overseer, or supervisors. 

Act April 14th, 1845. 

Section 8. The admission of insane patients, from 
the several counties of the Commonwealth, shall be in 
the ratio of their insane population : Provided, That 
each county shall be entitled to send at least one insane 
patient. 

Sec. 9. Indigent persons and paupers shall be 
charged actual cost, &c, payable by counties. 

Sec. 10. The courts of this Commonwealth shall 
have power to commit to said asylum any person 
who, having been charged with an offense punishable 
by imprisonment or death, shall have been found to 
have been insane in the manner now provided by 
law, at the time the offense was committed, and who 
still continues insane, and the expenses of said person, 



306 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

if in indigent circumstances, shall be paid by the 
county, &c. 

Sec. 12. The several constituted authorities having 
care and charge of the poor of the respective counties, 
districts, and townships, shall have authority to send to 
the asylum, such insane paupers under their charge as 
they may deem proper subjects, and they shall be 
severally chargeable with the expenses of the care and 
maintenance, and removal to and from the asylum of 
such paupers. 

Sec. 14. That if any person shall apply to any court 
of record within this Commonwealth, having jurisdic- 
tion of offenses, which are punishable by imprisonment 
for the term of ninety days or longer, for the commit- 
ment to said asylum of any insane person within the 
county in which such court has jurisdiction, it shall 
be the duty of said court to inquire into the fact of in- 
sanity in the manner provided by law ; and if such court 
shall be satisfied that such person is, by reason of in- 
sanity, unsafe to be at large, or if suffering any un- 
necessary duress or hardship, such court shall, on the 
application aforesaid, commit such insane person to 
said asylum. 

Sec. 15. In the order of admission, the indigent 
insane of this Commonwealth shall have always 
precedence of the rich [in another place "paying 

patients"], and recent cases shall have precedence 

of those of long standing. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 307 

Act May 4th, 1852. 

Whenever, in the opinion of the inspectors of the 
Eastern Penitentiary, any of the prisoners therein con- 
fined shall develop such marked insanity as to render 
their continued confinement in said penitentiary im- 
proper, and their removal to the State Lunatic Hos- 
pital necessary to their restoration, it shall be the duty 
of the said inspectors to submit such cases to a board 
composed of the district attorney of the county of 
Philadelphia, the principal physician of the Pennsyl- 
vania Hospital for the Insane, at Philadelphia, and the 
principal physician of the Friends' Insane Asylum, at 
Frankford, in Philadelphia county, and in case a ma- 
jority of them cannot at any time when required attend, 
a competent physician or physicians to be appointed 
by the Court of Quarter Sessions of the County 
of Philadelphia, in the place of such as cannot attend, 
upon whose certificate of insanity or the certificate of 
any two transmitted to the governor, and if by him 
approved, he shall direct that said insane prisoners 
shall be by said inspectors removed to the State 
Lunatic Hospital, there to be kept and properly pro- 
vided for at the cost and charge of the county from 
which they were sent to the penitentiary, and if at any 
time during the period for which any such insane 
prisoners shall have been sentenced to confinement in 
the Eastern Penitentiary, they shall, in the opinion of 
the trustees of said lunatic hospital, be so far restored 
as to render their return to said penitentiary safe and 
proper, then the said trustees shall cause the said 
prisoner to be returned to the Eastern Penitentiary, 



308 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

due notice to be given to the clerk of the court of 
quarter sessions of the county from which such 
prisoners were sent to the penitentiary of all such 
removals or transfers. 



Act April 8th, 1861. 

Section i . When application shall be made under the 
fourteenth section of the act of April 1 4th, 1 845, to which 
this is supplementary, to any court of this Common- 
wealth, for the commitment of any person to the Penn- 
sylvania State Lunatic Hospital, it shall be lawful for 
such court either to inquire into the fact of insanity in 
a summary way, &c. ; and in all cases, it shall be lawful 
for the several courts to use their discretion in sending 
insane persons to said hospital, or cause them to be 
confined elsewhere, as the said court may deem the 
case to be curable or otherwise. 

Sec. 2. No person shall hereafter be sent to the said 
lunatic hospital, under the tenth section of act April 
14th, 1845, or an Y other law of this Commonwealth, who 
shall have been charged with homicide, or having en- 
deavored or attempted to commit the same, or to com- 
mit any arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, and have 
been acquitted of any such offenses on the ground of 
insanity, or been proceeded against under the fifty- 
ninth or sixtieth sections of the act of 1836 (see above), 
where the court trying the same shall be satisfied that 
it will be dangerous for such lunatic to be at large, on 
account of having committed or attempted to commit 
either of the crimes aforesaid; but such persons shall 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 309 

be confined in a penitentiary or the prison of the 
proper county. 

Sec. 3. In every case where a lunatic has been or 
shall be committed to said hospital, after an acquittal 
of any crime on the ground of insanity, or after an in- 
vestigation in court under the fifty-ninth and sixtieth 
sections of the act June 13th, 1836, or on account of its 
being adjudged dangerous for such lunatic to be at 
large ; and in all cases where any lunatic has been or 
shall be removed from either of the penitentiaries, or 
any prison of this Commonwealth, under the order of 
a judge or of any court, it shall be lawful for the 
trustees of said hospital, with the aid of the super- 
intending physician, to inquire carefully into the situa- 
tion of the lunatic, and if a majority of the board, 
including the physician, shall be satisfied that there is 
no reasonable prospect of a cure of the insanity being 
effected by a retention of the lunatic in the hospital, 
they shall, at the expense of the proper city or county, 
cause him or her to be removed to the prison of the 
proper county, or the penitentiary from which he or 
she was sent. 

Thus it appears that before 1845, before the erec- 
tion of a State lunatic hospital, (1) persons tried and 
acquitted of crime on the ground of insanity, (2) per- 
sons indicted for an offense and found to be insane 
when brought up for trial, and (3) persons charged 
with some offense and brought before the court, to be 
discharged for want of prosecution, but being found in 
a state of lunacy — provided they have no friends — were 
to be sent to the penitentiary, the county jail, or, if the 
county authorities should give the required guarantees, 



3IO CARE OF THE INSANE. 

to the county poor-house — as the court should judge 
most proper. 

By the act of 1845 an d the establishment of the 
State Lunatic Hospital, this state of things was at once 
and in prospect greatly improved. This alleviation 
was obtained upon the memorials of Miss Dix and 
other philanthropic citizens, backed by the follow- 
ing representation from the judges of the criminal 
courts : — 

The memorial of Miss Dix to the legislature, dated 
February 3d, 1845, .contains the following certificate 
from members of the judiciary in relation to the im- 
prisonment of " insane criminals," Miss Dix prefacing 
its introduction with this paragraph : — 

" Next, after private families and poor-houses, the 
insane will be found in the jails and penitentiaries. 
On this subject the opinion of some of your jurists has 
been so explicitly declared, that I feel it but justice to 
the cause to give this expression of their sentiments 
place here." 

"Philadelphia, March 5th, 1839. 

" The want of an asylum for the insane poor often 
occasions painful embarrassments to the courts when 
the defense in the criminal charge is insanity fully sus- 
tained by proof. Although the jury may certify that 
their acquittal is on that ground, and thus empower the 
court to order the prisoner into close custody, yet that 
custody can be in no other place than the common prisons, — 
places illy qualified for such a subject of incarceration. 
We cannot doubt that the ends of justice would be 
greatly promoted if such an asylum as the petitioners 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 311 

contemplated were established with proper regulations, 
and the courts were authorized to commit to it all per- 
sons acquitted of crimes on the ground of insanity. 

" (Signed) Edward King, 

"Archibald Randall, 
"J. Richter Jones, 
" Judges of the Court of Quai'ter Sessions. 
" James Todd, 
" J. Bouvier, 
" R. T. Conrad, 
" Judges of the Criminal Sessions. 
" Calvin Blythe, 
"Judge of the Twelfth Judicial District." 

Miss Dix adds : — " It is believed that all the judges 
of the courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
having criminal jurisdiction, would coincide in the 
above opinion." 

But by the act of 1861, now in force, the benefits 
which had been secured, or which it was hoped would 
be secured, and which the judiciary thus earnestly de- 
sired might be secured, have been substantially anuulled 
and frustrated ; for, as to the subsequent act of April 
20th, 1869, — an act intended to guard the commitment 
to, and secure a proper discharge from, private hos- 
pitals, — it will be seen immediately, that it simply pro- 
vides for the mode of procedure in one particular case, 
viz., in discharging a person who has been acquitted of 
crime on the ground of insanity, at the time of its com- 
mission, but who is alleged now to be sane. It pro- 
vides for his " confinement," and then prescribes how 
the question of his sanity shall, before his discharge, 



312 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

be adjudicated. It is, in fact, legislation for the sane and 
not for the insane. (See Judge Brewster's " opinion," 
further on.) 

Under the first section of this act (1861) a person, 
a man or woman, though free from the taint or charge 
of any crime whatever, having committed no act of vio- 
lence or mischief, — a poor, pitiable, harmless lunatic, — 
may be sent to jail for indefinite incarceration ; and 
if, upon summary examination, such person is thought 
to be more probably incurable, it is more than suggest- 
ed to be the duty of the court to send him to prison. 
And, if once sent there, his case is remediless, unless 
he can get through the provision of section three, and 
we shall see what probability there is of that. 

Under the second section, no person charged with 
committing or attempting to commit certain heinous 
crimes, and acquitted of the charge on the ground of 
insanity, shall, if the court judge it dangerous for him 
to be at large, be sent to the hospital at all, but he shall 
be confined in the penitentiary or the prison of the proper 
county ; that is to say, the only option left to the court 
is, either at once to discharge such a person and let 
him go at large, or to commit him to a hopeless imprison- 
ment, — hopeless, we say, unless he can run the gaunt- 
let of section three. 

Under this third section — and this is the key to the 
right understanding of the present state of our whole 
legislation on the subject — any lunatic who, (1) upon trial, 
has been acquitted of any crime whatever , and however 
slight, or (2) who has been indicted for any offense, and 
upon being brought up for trial has been found insane, 
or (3) who, when brought up to be discharged for want 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 313 

of prosecution, is found insane, or (4) who, though 
never charged 'with any crime or any act of violence or 
harm, has been adjudged dangerous if allowed to go 
at large, — any lunatic of either of these four classes, 
who has thereupon been sent by the order of any 
court to a State hospital for the insane, — as well as 
any lunatic (5) who, by the order of the governor, or 
by any provision of law, has been removed from any 
penitentiary or jail to the said hospital, may, upon, the 
judgment of the trustees and superintending physician 
of said hospital, that there is no reasonable prospect 
of a cure of his insanity, be by them, and by their sole 
and uncontrolled authority, consigned to a helpless 
and hopeless imprisonment in the penitentiary or the 
county jail. (Perhaps we ought to remark, by the way, 
that the last words of the section, " from which he or 
she was sent," may seem to confine the exercise of the 
power of the hospital authorities to the fifth class of 
persons before described ; but as in that case the four 
other classes would have been enumerated in the 
section without any enactment in regard to them, it is 
presumed the act should be interpreted as extending 
the same power of removing the parties from the hos- 
pital to prison, to all those four classes of cases also; 
and so we believe it has always been interpreted. But 
perhaps it is to the credit of those who drew the act 
that there should be marks of haste in its composition.) 
It is clear, however, that this act contains no authority 
for sending any patients, however incurable, to the 
county poor-houses ; they can be sent back only to the 
prison or the penitentiary. 

We must ask your indulgence, gentlemen of the 



3H CARE OF THE INSANE. 

legislature, if we find ourselves compelled to speak 
harshly, or even disrespectfully, of the law of the land. 
We are addressing legislators and not a jury. But 
what a law is this ! Is it possible that the members of 
our subsequent legislatures, — is it possible that you, 
gentlemen, have been fully aware of its extraordinary, 
of its atrocious, provisions ? a law which, we are con- 
strained to say, in the terrible coolness of its barbarous 
enactments, in its disregard not only of all the claims 
of humanity and justice, but of the simplest civil rights 
of every citizen, is, so far as we can find, without a 
parallel in the legislation of any other State of this 
Union, or of any Christian or civilized community in the 
world. By this law, not only are persons, men and 
women who are admitted and solemnly adjudged to be 
innocent of all crime, men and women who have never 
even been charged with any act of violence or harm, 
liable to be hopelessly incarcerated, — incarcerated pro- 
fessedly for life (for they are pronounced probably in- 
curable, and this is their only crime); incarcerated in the 
common jail or the penitentiary, incarcerated in the 
society of felons, incarcerated where they can have no 
proper care or treatment ; not only this, but such per- 
sons liable to be so incarcerated, not upon the verdict 
of a jury of their fellow-citizens, or the examination and 
sentence of any court of justice, but upon the dictum — 
the sole, peremptory, uncontrolled, and irreversible 
dictum — of whom ? The dictum of the trustees and 
superintending physician of a State hospital, a tribunal 
unknown elsewhere to the Constitution and laws of 
the State ; whose rescript overrides and reverses 
the solemn sentences of all the criminal courts of the 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 315 

Commonwealth, and holds, in respect to them, the char- 
acter of a judgment of a supreme court of errors and 
appeals; and the appeal to this court is made by the 
court itself, — and even this is not all, but the court is the 
party interested to be rid of the care and burden of the 
poor speechless and defenseless victims, whose cases are 
to be passed upon ! 

Can anything be added to the extraordinary char- 
acter of such a law ? Shall it be allowed any longer 
to disgrace our statute-book, and tarnish the fair fame 
of our beloved and honored State ? 

No man, no one of us, gentlemen, can be sure that 
he will not become a helpless lunatic to-morrow. But 
does every citizen of Pennsylvania know that he is liable, 
without any fault of his own, to be sent at any time 
to the common jail, for life-long detention, by the sole 
and irrevocable authority and sentence of the superin- 
tendent and trustees of a State lunatic hospital? And 
that in spite of, and in reversal of, the contrary judg- 
ment and sentence of every court of justice, which may 
have passed, or which by law can pass, upon his case ! 

We beg here to disclaim, once for all, intending any 
personal reference to or reflection upon the estimable 
gentlemen who have the charge of the State hospitals 
for the insane. We doubt not they are honorable and 
conscientious men ; but they are men. The constitu- 
tion of such a court of review must, we think, be ad- 
mitted to be an anomaly in our legislation, and no less 
an anomaly that interested parties, however honorable 
and trustworthy, should be empowered to decide in their 
own case. And perhaps it is worth observing that, 
while a lunatic may be thus summarily removed from 



3*6 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

the hospital to the prison, by the simple fiat of the hos- 
pital authorities alone, a lunatic could not so readily be 
removed from the penitentiary to the hospital. For this 
purpose the law of 1852 presented a complex process. 
In order that a lunatic might be removed from the 
penitentiary to the hospital, the law provided that not 
only the inspectors of the penitentiary — honorable and 
conscientious men — should judge the continued con- 
finement of such lunatic in the penitentiary to be im- 
proper, and his removal to the State lunatic asylum 
necessary to his restoration, but the case must also be 
submitted to a board composed of the district attorney 
and either two superintendents of insane asylums or a 
competent physician or physicians to be appointed by 
the court of quarter sessions. Nor was their certificate 
of approval sufficient to secure the object ; but that cer- 
tificate must be transmitted to the governor, and, if he 
approved, he might order the removal. So careful was 
the law in that case to guard the process against abuse. 
But we may be asked why should we cavil at what 
may be considered a theoretic anomaly, while it ac- 
complishes the best results, and is the shortest and 
best way of accomplishing them ? We answer by ask- 
ing in return, what have been the results ? Have the 
courts, by them, been encouraged to send lunatics to 
the hospital, or, on the contrary, have they found that 
this is too often a roundabout way of sending them to 
prison ? But why is it that for more than twenty years 
the law has existed for sending certain lunatics from 
the penitentiaries to the hospital, and yet the experi- 
ment of doing- so has been tried in the eastern district 
of the State but once, — indeed, has not been tried at 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 317 

all in that district for full twenty years past ? Is it said 
that lunatics so transmitted very soon make their es- 
cape ? But if the hospital is by law to receive such 
lunatics, some part of it ought manifestly to be so con- 
structed and arranged as to be suitable for their safe- 
keeping, as has been done without difficulty or oppo- 
sition in the hospitals of several other States. Have 
the hospital authorities sought to provide such con- 
struction and arrangements, in order that the ends of 
the law might not be defeated ? Or, have they not 
rather sought and obtained the counter-provisions of 
the law of 1861, authorizing them to send all such 
lunatics back to prison ? Since which time it has been 
hardly thought worth while to commit any such to their 
care. Indeed, it has been trumphantly said, on ap- 
parently good authority (see Journal of Insanity, Oc- 
tober, 1873, page 214), that, after the first experiment, 
i. e., before the law of 1 861, as well as since, the board 
of trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital, at Harris- 
burg, declined receiving any more cases. That is to 
say, the board of trustees decided the question by their 
sole and ultimate authority — commission or no commis- 
sion — law or no law. We do not vouch for the fact, 
but it has been publicly so stated, without dissent, in 
the presence of the superintendent of the lunatic 
asylum. We presume the refusal, if made, was a 
mere declaration and not an act ; but the statement, 
however interpreted, is highly suggestive. The act of 
1852 is still the law of the land ; a law whose ends are 
eminently politic, just, and humane; but can the author- 
ities of the State hospital be counted upon as ready 
cordially to concur in carrying out the provisions of 
that law, for the accomplishment of those ends ? 



318 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

The views of the judges of our criminal courts and 
of the Supreme Court of the State, upon present legis- 
lation in regard to the insane poor and the insane 
criminal, will appear in their petitions to the legisla- 
ture, which we here introduce : — 

" To the Legislature of the State of Pennsylvania : 

" The judges of the criminal courts being greatly 
embarrassed under the law of 1836, in the disposal of 
persons charged with crime, who were acquitted on the 
ground of insanity, being obliged to commit them to 
'close custody' ; the jails and penitentiaries being alone 
open to them, memorialized the legislature in 1839, in 
behalf of the establishment of a hospital for the ' insane 
poor,' and denounced the commitment of the ir- 
responsible insane to the prisons of the State. By 
such influence and other humane and rightful effort, 
the legislature, in 1845, established the State Lunatic 
Hospital at Harrisburg, under a law which gave proper 
protection to the rights of the ' poor ' and the ' crimi- 
nal insane.' This legislation satisfied the judges who 
bore the responsibility of disposing of such persons, 
and was also a clear exponent of the public mind on 
the subject. 

" By more recent legislation, namely, by the act of 
April 8th, 1861, the courts, having jurisdiction of such 
cases, are forbidden to send them to the State hos- 
pitals, however irresponsible for crime, unless ' speedily 
curable,' if they are deemed dangerous persons to be at 
large ; and in every case where a lunatic may have 
been sent to the State hospital, after an acquittal of 
any crime on the ground of insanity, the authorities of 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 3 1 9 

such hospital may send such persons to a penitentiary or 
jail, at the expense of the county where he belongs, 
unless they deem the case 'speedily curable.' Sub- 
stantially the same provisions are contained in the act 
of April, 1863, relating to the western part of the 
State. The undersigned, regarding the provisions of 
the acts of 1861 and 1863, above cited, as an obstruc- 
tion to the ends of justice ; and, being greatly embar- 
rassed in our administration of such causes, respectfully 
beg that the legislation be repealed, or such amend- 
ments made as will relieve from unjust and injurious 
imprisonment with felons the irresponsible class re- 
ferred to, and which will also protect the 'insane poor' 
in their rights, and enable the courts to comply with the 
laws, without violating a sense of right or a sentiment 
of humanity. 

"The act of April, 1863, in relation to the commit- 
ment of the insane to the Western Pennsylvania Hos- 
pital, provides for the return of insane criminals and 
persons acquitted on the ground of insanity, to the 
jail or penitentiary, if deemed incurable. 

"Jos. Allison, 

"Jas. R. Ludlow, 

"Wm. S. Peirce, 

"Thos. A. Finletter, 

" Edward M. Paxson, 
" Judges of Court of Quarter Sessions, Philadelphia Co. 

"F. H. Collier, 

"James P. Sterrett, 

" Edwin H. Stowe, 
"Judges of Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny Co!' 



320 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

" We concur in the foregoing recommendation. 

"Geo. Sharswood, 
" Henry W. Williams, 
"John M. Read, 
" Daniel Agnew, 
" Ulysses Mercur, 

" Judges of Supreme Court. 
"November 28th, 1873." 

We turn to another description of the insane — to 
those who, without any charge or suggestion of crime, 
have, either as dangerous or simply as helpless luna- 
tics, been placed in the county poor-houses. These 
may by law be committed by the county authorities to 
the State hospitals for the insane. How many of them 
have been so committed ? Does the management of 
these hospitals encourage and stimulate the authorities 
to send them there ? They need encouragement and 
stimulus ; for, as experience too constantly shows, those 
authorities are extremely liable to be led by the con- 
siderations of a false and short-sighted economy, to 
endeavor to make a cheaper provision for the care and 
maintenance of their insane than that furnished by the 
hospital. Are those whom they actually commit sent 
back to them again, with a charge for the expense of 
both transfers ? If so, by the authority of what law 
are they sent back ? What law provides that the 
authorities of the hospitals may send any of their 
patients, or allow any of their patients, however violent 
or incurable, to be taken to a county poor-house ? Yet 
the simple fact is that while there are some five hun- 
dred of the insane poor in our hospitals, sent from the 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 32 1 

county almshouses, there are more than twice that 
number raving or languishing in our county poor- 
houses, an incarceration much better fitted to make a 
sane man mad, than a madman sane. And of the two, 
if there is less disgrace, there is also, in a majority of 
cases, less chance for comfort, and no better chance for 
recovery, in the poor-house than in the prison. So 
that it may be said upon a deliberate calculation, to be 
better, as regards comfort and a prospect of resto- 
ration, for an insane person to be convicted of crime, 
and sentenced to the penitentiary for a definite time, 
than, as an innocent lunatic, to be imprisoned in the 
poor-house. But we may add that the great and irre- 
mediable defect in both the prison and the poor-house, 
but especially in the latter, is the want of proper 
attendance and of skillful medical care. These poor 
creatures are not expected to recover. They are given 
over to utter hopelessness. 

And now, what is to be done ? To this question we 
would address ourselves with the full appreciation of 
the many and formidable difficulties with which the 
subject is encompassed. But we believe that there is 
no thoughtful person, who has made himself practically 
acquainted with the facts, that does not fully concur in 
the judgment that no poor-house can be a proper re- 
ceptacle for the insane. We shall enter into no argu- 
ment, therefore, to show that all the insane poor now 
gathered in the county poor-houses should, as soon as 
possible, be provided for in State lunatic hospitals, 
and transferred to them, to be there supported as the 
law may direct, unless any particular county has popu- 
lation enough, and insane poor enough, to render it 



32 2 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

advisable and feasible to establish and maintain a 
separate hospital for itself, with the full appointments 
and provisions for the best and most skillful care and 
medical treatment of the inmates, with a view both to 
their comfort and their care, as well as to the safety of 
the community. 

As to the other, less numerous, class, who have been 
committed by the courts (or by the hospital authorities) 
to the jails or the penitentiaries, including (i) those who, 
having been charged with the most heinous felonies, 
have been acquitted on the ground of insanity ; (2) those 
who, on the same ground, have been acquitted of any 
offense whatever, and however slight ; (3) those who 
have been indicted for any offense, and, upon being 
brought up for trial, have been found insane ; (4) those 
who, when brought up to be discharged for want of 
prosecution, have been found insane ; (5) those who, 
though never charged with any act of crime or harm 
whatever, have been judged dangerous if allowed to 
go at large ; as well as (6) those who, having been con- 
victed of crime, committed while they were presumed 
to be sane, have since become lunatics, — in regard to 
all these, it seems now to be universally conceded that 
the jail or the penitentiary is not the proper place for 
their cure and detention. 

The practical question then is, what other provision 
is to be made for them ? 

The act of May 4th, 1852, had, as we have seen, 
provided that any of the prisoners confined in the 
Eastern Penitentiary, being found insane (thus, insane 
convicts as well, but not insane convicts only) might, 
by a certain process, be removed to the State Lunatic 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 323 

Asylum. In their report of the year following, the in- 
spectors of the penitentiary inform us that of eighteen 
persons proposed by them as candidates for removal, 
eight had been so transferred by order of the gov- 
ernor, and they add : — 

"The inspectors cannot omit this opportunity of 
again calling upon the general assembly, should the 
means provided for this object be found in any way 
inadequate, either in the terms of the law authorizing 
the removal, or in the provision for the safe-keeping in 
the lunatic hospital, not to halt in the good work until 
it is carried into full effect. Let it no longer rest upon 
the fair fame of Pennsylvania, who claims to be fore- 
most in the work of penitentiary reforms, that insane 
men are imprisoned in the cells of her penitentiary for 
long years or for life. Surely, in 

this enlightened Christian age and country, the cells 
of the penitentiary should cease to be the abode of 
human beings without moral perceptions or responsi- 
bilities to fit them for the salutary effects of either peni- 
tentiary punishments or moral reform. The inspectors 
have gone more fully into this subject than they other- 
wise would have done, from the fact that a State hos- 
pital has been put into operation by the legislature for 
this enlightened and benevolent purpose. Its estab- 
lishment has been lono- needed." 

In their report for the next year (1854), the inspect- 
ors remark that " the eight persons before alluded to 
were the first so removed since the opening of the 
prison, twenty-five years ago, as until last year no in- 
stitution existed in Pennsylvania, as in other States, 
for the reception and treatment of persons who, though 



324 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

insane, required punitive restraint. No other cases 
have since occurred requiring removal from the peni- 
tentiary. The State Lunatic Hospital is an establish- 
ment of the highest utility, — its purpose approved by 
the most enlightened benevolence and sound policy. 
Every humane mind cannot but hope that it will be 
fostered and encouraged for the accomplishment of 
benefits to an increasing class of unfortunate people." 
They then proceed to a class who are sometimes in- 
cluded among the " criminal insane," in the following 
terms : — " As yet no complete provisions have been 
made for the reception and treatment of those insane 
who are sentenced to restraint of their liberty, because 
the fact of their unsound mind renders them irrespon- 
sible for the crimes charged against them. There are 
now four prisoners in the penitentiary thus confined ; 
their dangerous character, arising from homicidal 
mania, rendering them unsafe, unless under a cautious 
restraint. As they are in the penitentiary not as con- 
victs, but here retained because of no other place of 
equal security, it is difficult properly to treat them for 
the confirmed malady under which they labor. The 
time will come when, in the State hospital, provision 
can be made for this class of insane." 

Nearly twenty years have elapsed, and these poor, 
wretched beings are still in jails and almshouses. 

The inspectors making the report in 1853 were 
John Bacon, Richard Vaux, Hugh Campbell, Singleton 
A. Mercer, and Charles Brown; in 1854, Messrs. 
Bacon, Vaux, Mercer, Andrew Miller, and Charles 
McKibben. 

Then came the law of 1861, which empowers the 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 325 

trustees and physician of the State Lunatic Asylum to 
send insane persons, committed to the hospital by 
the courts, or removed to it from the penitentiary, 
back to the penitentiary from which they were sent, 
or to a prison to which they were not committed 
by the courts, when there appeared no reasonable 
prospect of a cure. The result is, that it is found 
a useless expenditure of pains and money, in many 
cases, for the courts to send to the hospitals insane 
men acquitted of crime, and always for the peni- 
tentiary to remove thither its prisoners or insane con- 
victs, while authority resides in the hospital forthwith to 
send them back again. In anticipation of this result, 
the inspectors of the Eastern Penitentiary, in their re- 
port of the following year (1862), ''respectfully suggest 
to the legislature that provisions by law be made r^- 
quiring the State Lunatic Asylum to take insane persons 
convicted of crime into that institution!' And, in 1863, 
"the inspectors again ask the legislature to require 
the State Lunatic Asylum to take ' insane convicts.' ' 
The inspectors in 1862 and 1863 were Richard Vaux, 
Samuel Jones, M. D., Alexander Henry, Thomas H. 
Powers, and Furman Sheppard. 

It is plain that these gentlemen, as well as the inspect- 
ors of 1853 and 1854, judged it to be the wisest and 
most desirable plan, in this as in other States, that pro- 
visions should be made for the criminal insane and 
even for insane convicts in connection with the State 
hospital rather than with the State penitentiary. 

We append here, without comment, as the docu- 
ments tell their own story very clearly, the communica- 
tions to this board from the inspectors of the Eastern 



326 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

and Western Penitentiaries, requesting its intervention 
with the legislature for the modification or repeal of 
the obnoxious laws against the rights of the insane 
which now disgrace our statute-books. 

" November 26th, 1873.. 

" To the Board of Public Charities : 

"The inspectors of the State Penitentiary for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania have heretofore in 
their reports called the attention of the legislature to 
the deplorable condition of the insane committed to 
the custody of that institution, and have suggested 
legislation which would relieve us from the pressure of 
a duty which we could not fulfill in providing for them 
proper care and medical treatment, and which also 
would provide for these defenseless and, for the most 
part, irresponsible persons, a more rightful and suitable 
abode than a prison. We now most respectfully appeal 
to the legislature, through your board, to so amend 
the legislation of the act of April 8th, 1861, as will give 
effect to the former representations of the inspectors, 
and place the class of the 'poor insane' and the 'crimi- 
nal insane ' in the more just and favorable position 
which they occupied under the law of April 14th, 1845, 
which established the State Lunatic Asylum at Harris- 
burg. 

" Richard Vaux, 
"Thomas H. Powers, 
"Alex. Henry, 
" Charles Thomson Jones, 
"John M. Maris." 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 327 



" To the Board of Public Charities : 

"The inspectors of the Western Penitentiary desire 
to call the attention of the legislature, through your 
board, to the necessity of further and fuller provision 
by law for the care and protection of the indigent and 
criminal insane. 

" In many of the annual reports of this penitentiary, 
attention has been directed to the fact that insane per- 
sons have been convicted of crime and sent to prison. 
The following, from our report for 'S6j, briefly states 
the facts in the case, and in its conclusions, we trust, 
will receive your earnest co-operation : — 

"We would ask the attention of the legislature to 
the great necessity there is for such legislation as will 
secure to the insane convict a place in some State in- 
stitution where he may be properly cared for. By 
special amended enactments of the law on this subject, 
no insane convict who has been committed to prison on 
the hieher erades of crime, can be transferred to the 
hospital at Dixmont, 'unless by the verdict of the jury in 
the case there is reason to believe that a cure of such 
insanity may be speedily effected.' 

" If this institution is intended only for the benefit of 
the curably insane, what is to become of the ill-fated 
wretch who has no helper, and whose reason is declared 
to be 'clean gone forever.' " 

" We hold that it is the duty of the State to make 
some speedy provision for his relief, either by the 
modification of existing laws, or the enactment of such 



328 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

statutes as will guarantee to him a humane and Chris- 
tian protection. 

"T. H. Nevin, 
"Robert H. Davis, 
"John Dean, 
" George A. Kelly, 
" Ormsby Phillips, 

" Inspectors!' 

In like manner the secretary of the Massachusetts 
Board of State Charities, in his report for 1871, re- 
commends, and in that for 1872 renews the recommen- 
dation, that a special " receptacle or institution be 
provided for insane convicts, and for insane persons who, 
in a state of insanity, have committed or are disposed 
to commit violent acts ;" for which he gives his reasons at 
large, and then adds, "it is submitted that the construc- 
tion of such a receptacle may perhaps be wisely made 
a part of the plan for a new hospital at Worcester. It 
can be made a separate building, surrounded by a wall, 
sufficiently removed from other buildings to avoid any 
unpleasant associations, and yet near enough to have 
the benefit of the general superintendence of that in- 
stitution." 

That is to say, as the secretary immediately adds, 
the project of a new and (totally) separate institution 
for the class referred to, is sure to start some vexed 
question, with which it would not be well to embarrass 
the desired improvement. The "convict insane " would 
give to it its distinctive character, and then any propo- 
sition to admit to it others, not " convict insane," who 
could be better provided for in it than elsewhere, would 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 329 

be resisted, as affixing to them the repute of a criminal 
class. Nor is it likely that it would, with its peculiar 
character, as well as it smaller numbers, be provided, 
in the long run, with a corps of officers equal in skill 
to those whose services are commanded by the other 
hospitals. "For these and other reasons, it is better 
that provision should be made for the insane, who have 
committed or are predisposed to homicidal or violent 
acts, in buildings or apartments, properly arranged and 
provided with means of security, in connection with 
some one of the lunatic hospitals." 

So much from the secretary. The board itself, in its 
first report, had said, " there is still another class, the 
'criminal insane,' for whom special provision should be 
made. Formerly they were kept in the prisons, con- 
fined in cells; but more recently they have been placed 
in the State hospitals. It is generally thought that this 
class of the insane should not be allowed to mingle 
with those who are free from crime, but should have 
apartments built expressly for their accommodation. 
The most appropriate plan for an asylum, designed for 
this class of insane persons, would probably be at one 
of the State hospitals." 

The same subject was again referred to in their fifth 
and sixth reports ; and again it is added, if a proper 
building for "insane convicts" and others predisposed 
to violent acts should be provided in connection with one 
of the State lunatic hospitals, "power should be given 
to this board to transfer from the other hospitals to the 
one where such provision is made, persons of the class 
referred to." " From the other hospitals," observe — 
not "from the prisons," — in Massachusetts there are 



330 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

no "insane criminals," nor " insane convicts" in the 
prisons. 

We have referred to the injurious and wrongful 
effects of the act of 1861, and we have seen the 
earnest counter-recommendations of the inspectors of 
the Eastern Penitentiary and other just and honorable 
authorities. We have ourselves already pointed out 
the disastrous consequences of that act ; and now, to 
confirm our position, we beg leave to insert here the 
results of the experience and research, and the carefully- 
drawn statements of Judge Brewster on this point, 
conveyed to us in a letter dated October 10th, 1873. 

"No. 214 West Washington Square, 

"Philadelphia, October 10th, 1873. 

" To Hon. George L. Harrison, 

"President of the Board of Ptiblic Charities, 

"Dear Sir: — Your communication of August 14th, 
in reference to ' insane criminals,' was duly received 
and acknowledged. 

" With your permission, the examination of the 
authorities which you desired was postponed until a 
recent date. 

" I have considered with some care the question you 
propound, and the several acts of assembly to which 
you referred me. I was induced to do this, not only 
because of the respect due to your letter, but also be- 
cause of the peculiar interest which ever attaches to 
the subject of the treatment of persons afflicted with 
the peculiar and distressing calamity of insanity. 

" Your favor refers me to a passage which is to be 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 33 1 

found in a communication addressed by your board to 
the public. 

" As you invite a statement of my opinion as to its 
accuracy, it is proper that I should quote it at length ; 
it is in these words : — 

" ' The sad and anomalous condition of " insane 
criminals " under the provisions of the act of 1836, 
relating to this class, did not satisfy the public mind, 
little as the public mind takes cognizance of such mat- 
ters, and it found in Miss Dix such an exponent of its 
wishes as led to the legislation of 1845, which estab- 
lished the State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg, at 
which provision was made for the reception of this class 
of the insane in community with the other patients. So 
largely did this feature interest the public, that it was 
the common thoueht that this institution was created 
for the special care of this class. The act of 1861 
practically nullified this legislation, and since then a 
great wrong has been imposed upon them, which this 
board is endeavoring to remove. Very many of them 
are consigned to the public jails. While wholly irre- 
sponsible in the eyes of the law, they are dealt with by 
the law as convicted criminals. We maintain that, 
under the law of 1861, the wisdom and humanity of 
our able and excellent judges are not competent to 
make any other disposition of them.' 

" You ask me to give my ' professional opinion upon 
the accuracy of the statement ' just quoted. 

"Save for your request, which implies that some one 
has ventured to doubt the correctness of your narra- 
tive, I should not have supposed it possible that it 
needed confirmation. 



33 2 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

"My first impression was decidedly in favor of its 
entire truth, and my subsequent examination of the 
law has confirmed my original conviction. 

" By the act of June 13th, 1836, it was provided that 
upon the acquittal of a defendant in a criminal case 
* upon the ground of insanity,' the court should have 
the 'power to order such a person to be kept in strict 
custody, in such place and manner as 
should seem fit * * * so long as such 
person should continue to be of unsound mind.' (KoX: 
of June 13th, 1836, section 58, P. L., 1836, page 603.) 

"The like proceedings were authorized if the de- 
fendant were upon arraignment found to be a lunatic 
and even where he was about to be discharged for 
want of prosecution. 

"Prior to 1841 there was no place in which such 
unfortunate persons could be 'kept in strict custody,' 
except prisons and penitentiaries. The private asy- 
lums were evidently not contemplated by the law, and 
were probably under no obligation to receive any 
person sent to them by the courts. 

"March 4th, 1841, Governor Porter approved an 
act ' to establish an asylum for the insane of this Com- 
monwealth.' This statute reflects great credit upon 
the gentleman who drafted it and upon the legislature 
and the governor who passed and approved of it. It 
established ' a public asylum for the reception and 
relief of the insane of this Commonwealth.' The 
governor was to appoint three commissioners to pur- 
chase a site and to erect a building for the accommo- 
dation of three hundred patients and necessary offices, 
at an expense not exceeding $120,000. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 333 

"The eighth section of said act was designed to 
remedy the evil you refer to as existing under the 
statute of 1836. It provided: — 

" ' That the proper courts of this Commonwealth 
shall have power to commit to said asylum any person 
who, having been charged with an offense punishable 
by imprisonment or death, shall have been declared by 
the verdict of a jury or otherwise, to the satisfaction of 
the court, to have been insane at the time the offense 
was committed and who still continues insane.' 

"The prior act of 1 75 1 had contained no such pro- 
vision. The act of 1841 removed the blot upon our 
system of confining insane persons as criminals. 

" So far as I have been able to discover, there was 
no change in this system for many years. ' It evidently 
met with the support of the people. By act approved 
by Governor Shunk, April 14th, 1845, a hospital was 
established at Harrisburg (P. L., 1845, P a g e 44 2 )- 

"The tenth section of this statute repeats the hu- 
mane provision of the act of 1841. 

"March 18th, 1848, Governor Shunk approved the 
act incorporating the Pittsburg Hospital. (P. L., 1848, 
page 218.) By a supplement to this charter, approved 
by Governor Pollock, May 8th, 1855 (P. L., 1855, page 
512), the provisions of the act of 1841 were extended 
to that institution. 

"Provisions for the removal of insane persons from 
prisons and penitentiaries were repeated by the acts of 
May 4th, 1852 (P. L., 1852, page 552), and March 24th, 
1858 (P. L., 1858, page 151). 

"So the law stood from 1841 to 1861. During 
those twenty years the courts and all classes of citizens 



334 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

were satisfied with the propriety, justice, and necessity 
of these laws. 

"April 8th, 1861, a statute was approved which pro- 
hibited the commitment to the Pennsylvania State 
Lunatic Asylum of any person charged with certain 
crimes enumerated. It, however, contained a humane 
proviso which left the power of commitment with the 
courts where they were satisfied that there was 'reason 
to believe that a cure of insanity might be speedily 
effected' (P. L., 1861, page 249). But a subsequent 
section authorizes the trustees and the superintending 
physician to reverse the order of the court, for if they 
are ' satisfied that there is no reasonable prospect of a 
cure' * * * * they may in all cases cause 

the patient to be removed to the prison of the proper 
county or the penitentiary from which he or she was 
sent.' 

" It is therefore unfortunately true, as stated by you, 
that the act of 1861 practically nullifies the humane 
legislation of former years, and that since 1861 a great 
wrong has been imposed upon a class of unfortunate 
persons who, although not responsible to the law, are 
yet subject to confinement in prisons and penitentiaries 
as felons. These views are not affected in any wise 
by the act of April 20th, 1869 (P. L., 78), for the 
officers of the State asylums are not embraced within 
its provisions. The act of 1861 stands unrepealed. 

" I am, very respectfully, yours, 

"F. CARROLL BREWSTER." 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 335 

In a large number of our sister States constitutional 
provision has been made to secure appropriate legisla- 
tion in behalf of the insane ; but in order to bring the 
whole subject more fully before the legislature, in all 
its bearings, or, at least, in a great variety of points of 
view, we take leave to introduce here the legislative 
provisions of a number of States as to insane persons, 
charged or convicted of crime ; premising that we have 
examined the constitution and laws, together, of thirty- 
three States (all that we have been able to reach), in 
relation to the insane, and in all cases their rights have 
been tenderly protected and the legislation in behalf of 
the class to which we are now directing your attention, 
with the single exception of Pennsylvania, is invariably 
of the most humane character. 

Legislation of other States in relation to Insane 

Criminals. 

Arkansas. — A person that becomes insane or lunatic 
after the commission of a crime or misdemeanor, shall 
not be tried for the offense during the insanity or 
lunacy. 

If, after verdict of guilty and before judgment pro- 
nounced, such person becomes insane or lunatic, then 
no judgment shall be given while the insanity or lunacy 
shall continue. 

If, after judgment or before execution of the sentence, 
such convict becomes insane or lunatic, if the punish- 
ment be capital or corporal, the execution thereof shall 
be stayed until the recovery of such convict from such 
insanity or lunacy. 



33& CARE OF THE INSANE. 

Connecticut. — That section two hundred and forty- 
three of the act concerning crimes and misdemeanors 
be amended by erasing from the fourth line thereof the 
words the " common jail," and inserting in lieu thereof 
the words " the General Hospital for the Insane of the 
State of Connecticut." 

Georgia. — It shall be the duty of the physician to 
the penitentiary of the State, when he discovers that 
any one of the convicts in said penitentiary has become 
lunatic or insane, to certify the same to the principal 
keeper of said penitentiary, and it shall be the duty of 
said principal keeper, upon the receipt of such certifi- 
cate, to transfer said convict to the lunatic asylum 
of this State, and shall send together with such con- 
vict a copy of said certificate, together with the day on 
which the term of service of such convict will expire 
in said penitentiary, and the county from which he was 
sentenced. 

Louisiana. — Whenever any person arrested to answer 
for any crime or misdemeanor before any court of this 
State shall be acquitted thereof by the jury, or shall 
not be indicted by the grand jury, by reason of the in- 
sanity or mental derangement of such person, and the 
discharge or going at large of such person shall be 
deemed by the court to be dangerous to the safety of 
the citizens or to the peace of the State, the court is 
authorized and empowered to commit such person to 
the State Insane Hospital or any similar institution in 
any parish within the jurisdiction of the court, there 
to be detained until he is restored to his right mind or 
otherwise delivered by due course of law. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 2>Z7 

Maine. — When any person is indicted for a criminal 
offense, or is committed to jail on a charge thereof by 
a justice of the peace or judge of a police or muni- 
cipal court, any judge of the court before whom he 
is to be tried, when a plea of insanity is made in court, 
or he is notified that it will be made, may in vacation 
or term time order such person into the care of the 
superintendent of the insane hospital, to be detained 
and observed by him till the further order of the 
court, that the truth or falsity of the plea may be 
ascertained. 

When the grand jury omits to find an indictment 
against any person arrested by legal process to answer 
for any offense by reason of his insanity, they shall 
certify that fact to the court ; and when a traverse jury 
for the same reason acquits any person indicted, they 
shall state that fact to the court when they return their 
verdict; and the court by a precept stating the fact of 
insanity, may commit him to prison or to the insane 
hospital till restored to his right mind or delivered 
according to law ; but he shall only remain in prison till 
provision can be made for him at the hospital and then 
removed thereto. 

When an inmate of the State prison becomes insane, 
the warden shall notify the governor of the fact, and 
he, with the advise of counsel, shall appoint a commis- 
sion of two or more skillful physicians to investigate 
the case, and if such inmate is found insane by their in- 
vestigation, he shall be sent to the insane hospital until 
he becomes of sound mind ; and if this takes place 
before the expiration of his sentence, he shall be re- 
turned to prison ; but if after, he shall be discharged 



33% CARE OF THE INSANE. 

free. The expenses of the commission, removal, and 
support shall be paid by the State. 

Minnesota and Wisconsin. — When any person so in- 
dicted or informed against for an offense, shall on trial 
be acquitted by the jury by reason of insanity, the jury, 
in giving their verdict of not guilty, shall state that it 
was given for such cause, and thereupon, if the dis- 
charge or going at large of such insane person shall 
be considered by the court manifestly dangerous to the 
peace and safety of the community, the court may order 
him to be committed to prison, or may give him into 
the care of his friends, if they shall give bonds with 
surety, to the satisfaction of the court, conditioned that 
he shall be well and securely kept ; otherwise he shall 
be discharged. 

Oregon. — If the defense be the insanity of the de- 
fendant, the jury must be instructed, if they find him 
not guilty on that ground, to state that fact in their 
verdict, and the court must thereupon, if it deems his 
being at large dangerous to the public peace or safety, 
order him to be committed to any lunatic asylum 
authorized by the State to receive and keep such per- 
sons, until he become sane or be otherwise discharged 
therefrom, by authority of law. (General Laws, Ore- 
gon, page 469, section 170.) 

New Jersey and New York. — When a person shall 
have escaped indictment or have been acquitted of a 
criminal charge upon trial, upon the ground of insanity, 
upon the plea pleaded of insanity or otherwise, the 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 339 

court being certified 'by the jury or otherwise of the 
fact, shall carefully inquire and ascertain whether his 
insanity in any degree continues, and if it does, shall 
order him into safe custody, and to be sent to the 
asylum. 

If any person in confinement, under indictment or 
under sentence of imprisonment, or for want of bail 
for good behavior * * * shall appear to 
be insane, the judge of the circuit court of the county 
where he is confined shall institute a careful investiga- 
tion, call two respectable witnesses, physicians, and 
other credible witnesses, invite the prosecutor of the 
pleas to aid in the examination, and, if he shall deem 
it necessary, call a jury, and for that purpose is fully 
empowered to compel the attendance of witnesses and 
jurors, and if it be satisfactorily proved that he is insane, 
said judge may discharge him from imprisonment, and 
order his safe custody and removal to the asylum, 
where he shall remain until restored to his right mind, 
and then, if the said judge shall have so directed, the 
superintendent shall inform the said judge and the 
county clerk and prosecutor of the pleas thereof, 
whereupon he shall be remanded to prison, and crimi- 
nal proceedings be resumed, or otherwise be dis- 
charged. 

Persons charged with misdemeanors and acquitted 
on the ground of insanity may be kept in custody and 
sent to the asylum in the same way as persons charged 
with crime. 

New York. — An act to organize the State lunatic 
asylum for insane convicts passed April 8th, 1858. 



34° CARE OF THE INSANE. 

Section i. The building now being erected on the 
prison grounds at Auburn, for an asylum for insane 
convicts, shall be known and designated as the " State 
lunatic asylum for insane convicts." 

[After defining the method of administration, the 
statute proceeds : — ] 

Sec. 8. Whenever the physicians of either of the 
State prisons of this State shall certify to the inspect- 
ors, that any convict is insane, they shall make imme- 
diately a full examination into the condition of such 
convict, and shall cause such convict to be examined 
by one of the physicians of the State Lunatic Asylum, 
at Utica, and if satisfied that said convict is insane, or 
that there is probable cause to believe such convict to 
be insane, they shall order the agent and warden of the 
prison where such convict is confined forthwith to con- 
vey such convict to the State Lunatic Asylum for 
insane convicts, and to deliver the said convict to the 
superintendent thereof, who is hereby required to re- 
ceive said convict into the said asylum, and retain him 
there so long as he shall continue to be insane; and 
no convict who has been committed to said asylum 
as insane shall be discharged from said asylum by 
reason of the expiration of the term for which he was 
sentenced, unless the relatives of such convict shall 
produce to said superintendent satisfactory evidence 
of their ability to maintain such convict, and shall 
execute and deliver to said superintendent an agree- 
ment in writing that such convict shall not be a charge 
upon any public charity, if such convict shall continue 
to be insane at the expiration of the time for which 
such convict was sentenced. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 341 

Act May 21st, 1873. 

No person, association, or corporation shall establish 
or keep any asylum, institution, or house of retreat for 
the care, custody, or treatment of the insane, or per- 
sons of unsound mind, without first obtaining a license 
therefor from the Board of State Charities : Provided, 
That this section shall not apply to any State asylum 
or institution or to any asylum or institution estab- 
lished or conducted by any county, or by any city or 
municipal corporation. 

The said board may revoke the license of any 
asylum or institution, issued under the provision of this 
act, for reasons deemed satisfactory to said board ; but 
such revocation shall be in writing and filed, and notice 
given in writing to the person, association, or corpora- 
tion to whom such license was eiven. 

Act June jtk, 18 jj. 

If any inmate of any such almshouse, when admitted, 
is insane, or thereafter becomes insane or of unsound 
mind, and the accommodations in said almshouse are 
not adequate and proper, in the opinion of the said 
secretary of the State Board of Charities, for his treat- 
ment and care, the said secretary may cause his re- 
moval to the appropriate State asylum for the insane, 
and he shall be received by the officer in charge of 
such asylum, and maintained therein until duly dis- 
charged. 

Ohio. — If any person in prison shall, after the com- 
mission of an offense, and before conviction, become 



34 2 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

insane * * * an examining court may 
be called in the manner provided in the act entitled 
■* * * and if such court shall find that such 

person became insane after the commission of the 
crime or misdemeanor of which he stands charged or 
indicted, and is still insane, the court shall proceed and 
the prisoner shall, for the time being, and until restored 
to reason, be dealt with in like manner as other lunatics 
are required to be after inquest had : Provided, how- 
ever, That if said lunatic be discharged, the bond given 
for his support and safe-keeping shall also be condi- 
tioned that said lunatic shall, when restored to reason, 
answer to said crime or misdemeanor and abide the 
order of the court in the premises ; and any such 
lunatic may, when restored to reason, be prosecuted 
for any offense committed by him previous to such 
insanity. 

If any person, after being convicted of any crime or 
misdemeanor, and before the execution in whole or 
in part of the sentence of the court, become insane, it 
shall be the duty of the governor of the State to in- 
quire into the facts, and he may pardon such lunatic, 
and commute or suspend, for the time being, the 
execution in such manner and for such a period as he 
may think proper, and may by his warrant to the 
sheriff of the proper county, or warden of the Ohio 
Penitentiary, order such lunatic to be conveyed to the 
asylum and there kept until restored to his reason. 
If the sentence of any such lunatic is suspended 
by the governor, the sentence of the court shall be exe- 
cuted upon him after such period of suspension hath 
expired, unless otherwise directed by the governor. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 343 

Rhode Island. — If upon examination a judge is satis- 
fied that the person thus imprisoned is insane or 
idiotic, he shall have the power to order the removal 
of such prisoner from the State prison or jail aforesaid, 
to be detained in the State asylum for the insane, if he 
can be there received, or if not in the Butler hospital. 

Such order of removal shall be for and during the term 
of said prisoner's sentence, and be directed to the sheriff 
of the county in which such prisoner stands committed. 

Any person removed as aforesaid, upon restoration 
to reason may, by an order of either of the judges of 
the Supreme Court, in his discretion, be remanded to 
the place of his original confinement, to serve out the 
remainder of his term of service. 

Massachusetts. — The physician of the State prison, 
as chairman, with the superintendent of the State 
Lunatic Hospital, shall constitute a commission for the 
examination of convicts in said prison alleged to be 
insane. Each commissioner shall receive for his ser- 
vices in such capacity his traveling expenses and three 
dollars a day for each day he is so employed. 

The commission shall investigate the case, and if, in 
the opinion of the majority of them, the convict has 
become insane and his removal would be expedient, 
they shall so report, with their reasons, to a judge of the 
Superior Court, who shall forthwith issue his warrant 
under the seal of that court, directed to the warden, 
authorizing him to remove the convict to one of the 
State lunatic hospitals, there to be kept till, in the 
opinion of the superintendent and trustees thereof, he 
may be recommitted consistently with his health. 



344 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

When a convict in the prison appears to be insane, 
the warden or inspector shall give notice to the chair- 
man of said commission, who shall forthwith notify the 
members thereof to meet at the prison. 

New Hampshire. — The governor, with the advice 
of the council, may remove to the asylum, to be there 
kept at the expense of the State, any person confined 
in the State prison who is insane. 

South Carolina. — Any judge of the circuit court is 
authorized to send to the lunatic asylum every person 
charged with the commission of any criminal offense, 
who shall, upon the trial before him prove to be non 
compos mentis, and the said judge is authorized to make 
all necessary orders to carry into effect this power. 

Tennessee. — That section 5488 of the code of Ten- 
nessee be so amended as to read, whenever the physi- 
cian reports to the keeper of the penitentiary that any 
convict is insane, and ought on that account to be re- 
moved to the lunatic asylum, the keeper shall cause 
such insane convict to be removed accordingly, there 
to remain until discharged by the physician of said 
lunatic asylum. 

Texas and Iowa. — If any person charged with or 
convicted of any criminal offense, be found to be 
insane in the court before which he is so charged or 
convicted, said court shall order him to be conveyed to 
and retained in the State Lunatic Asylum, and he shall 
be received and retained, until removed by the order 
of the court by which he was committed to the asylum. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 345 

If any person after being convicted of any crime or 
misdemeanor, and before the execution in whole or 
part of the sentence of the court, becomes insane, it 
shall be the duty of the governor of the State to in- 
quire into the facts, and he may pardon such lunatic 
or commute or suspend for the time being the execu- 
tion, in such manner and for such a period as he may 
think proper, and may by his warrant to the sheriff of 
the proper county, or warden of the Iowa Penitentiary, 
order such lunatic to be conveyed to the hospital and 
there kept until restored to reason. 

As before said, the State of New York has made 
provision for the care in hospitals of all her insane 
poor. For this she is to be commended ; in this to be 
imitated. But the hospital or asylum referred to in the 
foregoing statutes as that to which " insane convicts " 
and others are to be sent, is a lunatic asylum estab- 
lished by a statute of 1858, on the prison grounds at 
Auburn, expressly for this object. In this, her purpose 
is most laudable ; but the propriety of her course is 
most questionable, as will more fully appear in the 
sequel. 

This board had the honor, last year, of causing to 
be prepared and laid before the senate the draught of 
a bill " to provide for the care and keeping of the 
criminal insane of this Commonwealth — including 
those who may be acquitted of crime on the ground of 
insanity." And the proposition was, in general terms, 
that a department, a wing, or a distinct building sur- 
rounded by a wall, of the hospital now under construc- 
tion at Danville, should be so planned, arranged, 



34^ CARE OF THE INSANE. 

completed, and organized as to make it fit, suitable, 
and convenient for the care, keeping, and treatment of 
the classes of insane persons referred to. It may be 
proper to say that the board had chiefly in view the 
more numerous class, — those who were in prisons with 
criminals, without ever having been convicted of crime ; 
and that they made their recommendation, so far as 
regards the less numerous class, the strictly " convict 
insane," on the assumption, which we have shown may 
fairly be made, that the vast majority of such convicts 
were really insane, or, at least, in the incipient or 
latent stages of insanity, at the time the acts charged 
against them as crimes were committed.* They 

* Report in relation to the insane convicts in the Eastern Penitentiary on Feb- 
ruary 24th, 1873, by Edward Townsend, warden. Number this date, 12. 
W. W. — Confirmed lunatic on admission. 
M. L. — Imbecile in mind on admission. 
T. R. — Unsound mind on admission. 
A. N. — Unsound mind on admission. 
I. B. H. — Imbecile on admission. 
G. V. — Decidedly imbecile when admitted. 
M. V. B. S. — Very weak-minded on admission, since insane. 
Dora S. — Insane on admission and remains so. 

Mary S. — Insane on admission and had been an inmate of an insane asylum. 
M. McG. — Very feeble-minded on admission. 
E. L. — Weak-minded, bordering on lunacy, when admitted. 
P. L. — Insane on admission. 

Report of Edward S. Wright, warden of Western Penitentiary, on the 
same subject, made at the same time. Number of insane convicts in peniten- 
tiary, 8. 

Prisoner No. 3324, mental health impaired on admission. 
« 3720, 
" 3750, " " " 

" 3958, " " " * 

" 4006, 

" 4008, 

" 4019, " insane on admission. 

" 4030, " " " 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 347 

were cases of this sort, or this was the aspect of 
the cases we had in mind, and for which we sought 
relief; the others, the ten per cent, or so, we regarded 
as simply exceptions, which, at all events, should not 
vitiate the rule. We proposed but did not urge the 
bill ; and, through misunderstanding, and in conse- 
quence of opposition from interested parties, it was 
lost. 

At the late meeting in Baltimore of the Association 
of Medical Superintendents of Hospitals for the Insane, 
it was openly stated by a member from Pennsylvania 
that " that measure was defeated (I suppose) by the 
efforts of certain members of this association," and the 
statement was not contradicted. (See Journal of In- 
sanity, October, 1873, page 236.) 

This meeting of medical superintendents was a not- 
able one. Believing that the case of the proposed law 
just referred to had not been fully understood, and 
wishing to have the subject freely and thoroughly 
ventilated, we addressed to the president of this asso- 
ciation the following communication : — 

"Philadelphia, May 28th, 1873. 

" Dr. J. S. Butler, President of Convention of Medical 
Superintendents for the Insane, 

" Dear Sir : — The morning papers inform me that 
the important humanitarian body over which you pre- 
side has assembled, for the consideration of the 
interests of the insane, in convention at Baltimore. 
On other like occasions, the commissioners of this 
board have been honored with an invitation, — to be 
represented, of course, in presence merely ; but still 



34-8 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

we are glad to be apprised of your meeting by public 
announcement, and venture to address you on a sub- 
ject of great interest to this board, and one which, we 
think, has escaped any authoritative action of your 
body. 

" We refer to the subject of the care of the ' crimi- 
nal insane.' We are led to refer this matter to you 
for action, because of an unsuccessful effort made by 
this board to have a precedent established by the Legis- 
lature of the State of Pennsylvania, to construct a 
department for this class upon the grounds of the 
Hospital for the Insane at Danville, Pennsylvania, for 
the reception and treatment of (for the most part) the 
irresponsible insane, who are now incarcerated in the 
penitentiaries and jails of this Commonwealth. 

" It is true that we did not press this matter upon 
the legislature, believing that the simple proposition 
should be sufficient for favorable action ; but as the 
higher advice of representatives from this State in 
your convention prevailed to defeat the measure which 
we proposed, we feel justified in asking you to take 
such definite action as will have like influence in pro- 
tecting the class who are committed, in this State, at 
least (I am glad to say not in all other States), to the 
miseries of a felon's doom. 

" In noticing this subject I beg your permission to 
venture on a few observations on this subject, and in 
doing so I express the mind of every member of this 
board. 

" It is a fact patent to all of us, that multitudes of 
irresponsible criminal insane are now in prisons of 
many of the States, and it is equally true that the in- 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 349 

fluence of the body known as the Association of Medi- 
cal Superintendents of American Institutions for the 
Insane has exercised a most potent and salutary influ- 
ence in shaping the legislation of the several States in 
behalf of this afflicted class of their citizens. 

" Believing that your influence will avail to check the 
enormous wrong which the class we refer to suffer, we 
ask your intervention in their behalf, and urge you to 
set forth a distinct and definite policy which shall satisfy 
its demands. 

" We know that in Great Britain there are two asy- 
lums for the specially criminal insane ; one at Broad- 
moor, not far from London, a distinct institution, with 
accommodations for from five to six hundred inmates ; 
and one at Perth, Scotland, under penal jurisdiction, 
but in charge of a special superintendent. 

" We know that on the continent of Europe there is 
no special provision for the criminal insane ; it being 
held by the most distinguished alienist physicians, and 
so proclaimed in many works on psychological subjects, 
that insanity should level all distinctions ; and, as Dr. 
Manning reports, that ' the great gulf which separates 
the convict from the honest man is bridged over by in- 
sanity ; that when sick in body, the prisoner should be 
kept within his prison and treated for his malady, but 
when sick in mind, the prison should be opened and the 
badge of the convict be forgotten.' 

"In this view, the well-known humanitarian, Miss 
Dix, concurred. 

" We also know that in these United States there is 
an asylum for insane convicts at Auburn, New York, 
intended originally for the reception of such as became 



3 SO. CARE OF THE INSANE. 

insane when convicts, but more recently for those, also, 
who have been acquitted on the ground of insanity. 
We know of no other special provision made for this 
class, unless it be in jails. In the State of Pennsylvania 
there are not, we think, over ten per cent, of the num- 
ber who are now confined in the penitentiaries and jails 
who, on the report of the wardens and prison-keepers, 
were not insane when sentenced, and of this small per- 
centage some, of course, were mentally imbecile or in 
the incipient stage of insanity when the crime was 
committed. The law holds them to be ' irresponsible,' 
and still they are held as felons by the act of the law. 
As has been well said, 'the courts fail to detect the disa- 
bility for want of a proper defense or because the 
mental disease is still latent.' The jails thus receive 
these forlorn 'wards of the State,' forsaken by man ; 
not, we believe, by God. We could enumerate instan- 
ces of marked cruelty in individual cases, but we point 
only to the injustice which must inevitably oppress 
them, when subjected to the treatment of prisoners in 
the State and county jails. Their lightest affliction 
being perpetual incarceration without the slightest 
consideration of their sufferings or their needs. This 
is the case certainly in Pennsylvania. 

" There will be no dispute as to the impolicy as well 
as the wrong-doing of such ' proceedings.' These ' irre- 
sponsible ' citizens are, as if often said, 'wards of the 
State.' Surely no official of the State, no private 
citizen, who is the head of a family, would overlook the 
claims of his own children. They would extend the 
solace and the help all the more for their infirmities. 

" In the year 187 1 the Massachusetts Board of Public 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 35 1 

Charities addressed communications to the superin- 
tendents of the lunatic hospitals of that State, requesting 
their views on certain points. That which concerns 
this board is the inquiry as to the provision which 
should be made for the class to whom we refer. It is 
highly honorable, in our judgment, to the intelligence 
as well as to the humanity of each of these distinguished 
gentlemen, that neither recommended that a hospital 
for the ' criminal insane ' should be an appendage or 
an appurtenance of a prison, or built at all on prison 
grounds. On the contrary, although one of them, to 
relieve the urgency of the case, admits that he has 
recommended the fitting of a lunatic ward in the State 
prison, to be placed under the special care of the prison 
physician, still he declares ■ there would be but little 
objection, aside from sentiment, to the treatment of 
lunatic convicts in a properly constructed hospital for 
the insane, where they would not mingle indiscrimi- 
nately with the other classes of patients.' Another 
says, ' I would not advocate making it an adjunct of the 
State prison, or any penal institution.' The last, after 
recommending that a distinct institution be established 
for the reception of this class, says, with the knowledge 
that they are provided for [in Massachusetts] in the 
State lunatic hospitals, ' if the superintendents and 
trustees of any State lunatic hospital, and the general 
agent of the Board of State Charities, concur in the 
opinion that a patient of said hospital ought to be 
removed to said building, he should be so removed. 
This is the alternative to care and treatment in a gene- 
ral hospital for the insane : in Pennsylvania [it would 
be] from a prison to a hospital. 



35 2 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

"As the result of the investigations of this intelligent 
commission, and the views forcibly presented by the 
eminent alienist physicians of their own State, viz., 
Drs. Godding, Earle, and Bemis, this cautious board 
has recommended in their present, report, just issued, 
the establishment of a hospital for the ' criminal insane! to 
be placed near enough one of the other State hospitals for 
the insane to be tinder the same administration. 

"This board concurs in the principle which underlies 
this recommendation, as well as in its practical wisdom, 
for as to the latter, it cannot be expected that any one 
State will incur the expense of an independent estab- 
lishment for this class and the cost of its proper over- 
sight and maintenance. As has been already stated, 
there is but one in England whose population approxi- 
mates to our own (that of the United States). As to 
the former, there is no moral ground upon which the 
separation of the two classes can be based. It is 
simply the ground of disagreeableness, to those who 
conduct the institution, to a small proportion of the 
patients, and to some of their friends. It is ' sentiment/ 
and this we admit should be religiously regarded in the 
consideration of every provision for the insane. Let it 
not be overlooked in behalf of the class we are now 
considering ! We say sentiment only, for the scheme 
proposed to our legislature provided for a separate 
and secure building, separately enclosed with suitable 
walls, but to be under the supervision of the superintend- 
ent of the general hospital, on the same premises. 

" Believing that our views have been clearly con- 
veyed in this communication, and excusing its crudeness 
by the obvious necessity of haste, I beg most respect- 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 353 

fully to commit the subject to your thoughtful deter- 
mination and action ; and I trust that they may be so 
enlightened as to reflect honor upon your body and 
yourselves individually — not merely for the present, 
but for all time. 

" I am, most respectfully, yours, 

"GEO. L. HARRISON, 

" President 

When the association entered upon the consideration 
of this letter, the following resolutions were offered : — 

"Whereas, The proper disposal of that class of the 
insane, whose criminal acts require their seclusion and 
confinement, is a matter on which this association is 
requested to express an opinion. 

"1. Resolved, Therefore, as the opinion of this associ- 
ation, that neither jails and penitentiaries nor ordinary 
hospitals for the insane are proper receptacles for this 
class of persons ; but that they should be cared for in 
establishments designed expressly and solely for them. 

"2. Resolved, That under no circumstances should 
' insane convicts ' be associated with other insane per- 
sons, believing that such an association is not calcu- 
lated to improve the condition of the latter, and that 
the best interests of the former require a special 
management, and architectural arrangements of a 
peculiar kind, both very different from such as are 
adapted to the needs of other classes of the insane. 



354 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

" 3. Resolved, also, That the example of the State 
of New York, which has thus provided for its • criminal 
insane,' as they are usually called, be commended to 
imitation by other States, either singly or collectively." 

We take the liberty of reproducing here some of the 
most noteworthy utterances which this discussion called 
forth in the association, as they are published in the 
Journal of Insanity, before cited. 

Dr. Shew, superintendent of the general hospital for 
the insane, Middletown, Connecticut : — " If the resolu- 
tions refer to persons who commit acts which would be 
considered criminal, were they not insane, I cannot concur 
in all the resolutions. Many of the patients received in 
our hospital commit those acts, and are sent to the hos- 
pital because they are dangerous to society, — dangerous 
as insane persons. It seems to me that there can be but 
one opinion, and that is that insane criminals should be 
separated entirely from patients in hospitals. First, 
because of the dangerous influence upon other patients; 
secondly, because of the odium which it brings on the 
institution, and the unpleasant feeling which the friends 
of the patients have in supposing or believing that 
their loved ones are associating daily and hourly with 
criminal persons. 

" In practical experience I have not found that ' in- 
sane convicts' are particularly objectionable in them- 
selves — not so much as Dr. Shurtleff and Dr. Curwen 
have." [Dr. Curwen has not given his remarks in the 
official publication.] "Three years ago the Legislature 
of Connecticut passed a law requiring the trustees of 
the hospital at Middletown to receive all insane con- 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 355 

victs after a proper examination, which was specified, 
and a commission appointed. We had no separate 
provisions, and were obliged to receive them in the 
hospital proper, and place them in association with the 
other patients. Since that time twelve insane convicts 
have been transferred from Wethersfield to Middle- 
town ; two of that number have escaped ; one of them 
feigned insanity ; arrangements had been made to 
transfer him to Wethersfield, but he escaped the very 
night before the transfer was to be made. Of the ten 
others, seven have been among the most valuable farm 
laborers, harmless, industrious, and peaceable, and yet 
positively insane ; much less dangerous than many of 
the chronic patients. One of the number has been 
very valuable the past few years, in sharpening the 
tools used by the stone-cutters in the erection of the 
two wings, saving the cost of one skilled mechanic. It 
was his trade and occupation before being sent to 
prison. None of the seven who have been employed 
ever attempted to escape." 

[ Why, then, was it that in the case of the eight in- 
sane convicts sent to the Harrisburg institution, five 
managed to escape ?~\ 

" They are generally liked by the patients, and are 
not more troublesome than others. The friends of the 
patients ['paying' patients, doubtless] object to the 
association, and in my report last year I called the 
attention of the legislature to that fact, and asked that 
an appropriation be made for a separate building, dis- 
tinct from the main hospital, a cottage simply, to 
provide for the insane convicts. * * 

During the present year, we hope to have a building 



356 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

for the accommodation of twenty persons, in which we 
will provide for all the insane convicts. There have 
been only three transferred from Wethersfield each 
year." 

Dr. Shew then — assuming that the population and 
resources of some of the States, and the number of 
their insane convicts, may be such as to warrant the 
construction in each of an entirely separate hospital 
for their accommodation, with all the best appoint- 
ments for their proper care and treatment — proceeds to 
express, in that case, his preference for having such a 
hospital, intended exclusively for the insane convicts 
proper, erected on the grounds of the State prison, 
rather than on those of a general hospital ; but other- 
wise, and for other States, he clearly prefers such an 
arrangement as he has described at Middletown. 

Dr. Compton, of Mississippi : — 

"The third resolution, I think, I would amend, be- 
cause that condemns the action of my own State in 
this matter. It declares that under no circumstances 
should insane convicts be permitted to associate with 
other insane persons, believing that such association is 
not calculated to benefit the insane, &c. I would be 
very decidedly against the first part of the resolution, 
that, 'under no circumstances should they be associ- 
ated.' I would take them into my asylum rather than 
let them remain in the penitentiary or jail. In the ab- 
sence of the proper provisions I would take them out of 
the penitentiary and jails and put them into my asylum." 

Dr. Earle, of Northampton, Massachusetts : — 

" I would put the convict insane in a separate insti- 
tution, independent of all other institutions. I would 



CARE OE THE INSANE. 357 

put in the same place those who have been tried for 
crime and acquitted on the ground of insanity ; then 
those incendiary and homicidal patients who never 
had been tried for crime. I would make the provision 
that they should be removed to that institution, but not 
unless it was decided by the superintendent of the 
hospital and the Board of State Charities and its agents; 
all these authorities must concur before a man who had 
committed a criminal act, and had not been convicted 
of crime, should be removed (not from the common 
hospital to the penitentiary or prison, but) from the 
common hospital to this institution. This applies only 
to the incendiary and homicidal class, because our most 
dangerous patients are not convicts, and have never 
been tried for crime and acquitted on the ground of 
insanity." 

Dr. Grundy, of Athens, Ohio : — 

" In endorsing the action of the State of New York, 
we go further than my amendment would contemplate, 
because we endorse this course. They have done very 
well in providing a hospital for insane convicts, but with 
those insane convicts they send persons who are com- 
pelled to mingle with them, whose acts of violence were 
committed in their diseased condition. It is urged that 
this is a matter of expediency, because the hospitals are 
not able to contain them for various reasons. If the 
hospitals are not properly constructed make them so. 
If special arrangements are required for violent pa- 
tients, have those special arrangements made." The 
doctor then goes on to speak with more kindness than 
respect of boards of State charities ; but with this we 
have nothing to do. 



35$ CARE OF THE INSANE. 

Dr. Smith, of Fulton, Missouri : — 

" I must also object to that part of one of the reso- 
lutions which endorses the New York law. Those 
conversant with this law inform us that one of its pro- 
visions requires that all acquitted on the ground of in- 
sanity shall, in the discretion of the judge, be sent to 
the same institution designed for convicts." [And he 
might have added, standing as a department of the 
State prison.] " Such a provision as this I cannot en- 
dorse. * * Endorsing this law would 
be equivalent to endorsing the punishment of the insane, 
because of the acquittal of crime ; the penalty of assign- 
ing them to a position most repulsive to their feelings 
and those of their friends, and one that would not only 
retard but often prevent recovery." [What would the 
doctor have said of sending them, as we do, not to a 
common hospital, but to a common prison ?] " We 
have patients in our institution, who, prior to admission, 
committed terrible deeds, and no doubt there are such in 
most hospitals for the insane. We have fathers who 
killed their wives and children, and a mother who 
killed her husband ; all under the influence of delu- 
sions in regard to different members of their families. 
These patients have been as orderly, quiet, and pleas- 
ant as any in our building; have shown no tendency 
to violence, and exerted no injurious influence over 
others." 

The resolutions were amended and finally passed as 
follows, and were transmitted to us at the response of 
the association : — 

"Whereas, The President of the Board of Charities 
of Pennsylvania has requested that this association 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 359 

should express its opinion in regard to the proper dis- 
position of insane convicts : therefore, 

"Resolved, That neither the cells of penitentiaries 
and jails, nor the wards of ordinary hospitals for the 
insane, are proper places for the custody and treatment 
of this class of the insane. 

" 2. That when the number of this class in any State 
(or in any two or more adjoining States which will unite 
in the project) is sufficient to justify such a course, 
these cases should be placed in a hospital specially 
provided for the purpose ; and that until this can be 
done, they should be treated in a hospital connected 
with some prison, and not in the wards nor in separate 
buildings upon any part of the grounds of an ordinary 
hospital for the insane." 

The published report of the debate, from which we 
have made the foregoing citations, as containing import- 
ant medical opinions bearing on the subject in hand, 
would have been more complete and fair, as well as 
less liable to misunderstanding- if the letter from this 
board which called it forth had not been suppressed. 
It would then have appeared that both the debate and 
the final action of the association failed to grasp the 
precise points presented in the letter. They treated 
the subject with reference to an ideal standard, rather 
than with reference to the actual laws and practice of 
Pennsylvania in the case. 

The whole debate and the final action were eventu- 
ally narrowed down to the case of " insane convicts " 
exclusively, instead of taking into view all the classes 
of the " criminal insane," so called, which were pre- 
sented for their consideration. 



360 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

It is instructive, however, to compare the resolutions 
finally adopted with those originally proposed. 

i. Both sets of resolutions agree — and so did, ap- 
parently, every member of the association, in the most 
emphatic manner — in the fundamental principle, that 
neither the cells of jails and penitentiaries, nor the 
wards of ordinary hospitals for the insane, are proper 
receptacles for the custody and treatment of that class of 
the insane whose case was under consideration. 

2. The resolutions adopted confine themselves to the 
care of insane convicts as such, a portion only of the 
cases submitted for consideration, while the original 
preamble included the " proper disposal of that class 
of the insane whose criminal acts require their seclu- 
sion and confinement." Precisely what class was in- 
tended to be thus described might be doubted, but if 
simply " insane convicts " were intended, it was a very 
circuitous way of saying so. 

3. It is not expressly and positively declared, in 
these as in the former resolutions, that, under no cir- 
cumstances, should " insane convicts " be associated 
with other insane persons ; but merely that they should 
be treated " in a hospital specially provided for the pur- 
pose." 

It is left an open question whether or not other spe- 
cial classes of insane persons may be treated in the 
same specially-provided hospital, i. e., supposing such 
hospital not to be on prison grounds, and, at the same 
time, not a department of any ordinary hospital for the 
insane. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 36 1 

4. The commendation of the New York plan of 
sending other insane persons besides convicts to a 
hospital connected with a State prison, is carefully 
avoided. 

5. A separate hospital for this class — separate from 
prisons as well as ordinary hospitals — is proposed as 
the proper and desirable plan, provided it can be had. 

6. Until such a hospital can be had, it is proposed, 
as an imperfect, temporary, and unsatisfactory substi- 
tute, — but as much better than giving "insane convicts" 
no special or remedial treatment at all, — that they, i.e., 
the strictly "insane convicts " as such, and by themselves, 
should be treated in a hospital connected with some 
prison, rather than on the grounds of any "ordinary" 
hospital for the insane. 

The conclusions thus reached, as far as they go, 
would be quite in harmony with the views of this 
board, except, perhaps, in the last-mentioned particu- 
lar ; and, on that point, there might be no substantial 
disagreement when the case is narrowed down to the 
precise circumstances contemplated, and the precise 
expressions employed. It is, in terms, an undesirable 
alternative which is thus presented. We think, and we 
shall hope to show, that it is neither reasonable nor 
necessary to resort to such an alternative at all. 

The plan of two or more States joining in the erec- 
tion or support of a hospital for insane convicts is 
not new. Such a plan was proposed and drawn out 
at large by Dr. Edward Jarvis, of Massachusetts, in 



362 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

1857, in a very able and suggestive paper on the 
" criminal insane." We cannot but regard all such 
propositions as simply futile. No two or more States 
will ever combine in building a common hospital for 
their "insane convicts ;" nor will anyone State ever 
provide such a hospital for the use of other States. 
In reference to such joint action, the case of insane 
convicts is very different from that of the blind or deaf- 
mutes or the ordinary insane. We may therefore dis- 
miss such suggestions as visionary and illusory. And 
the fact that United States convicts are received into 
the convict-prisons of several of the States, in the ab- 
sence of a national prison, furnishes no parallel at all 
to the expedient suggested, of one State taking charge 
of another State's convicts. It may be quite possible, 
and fair, also, for a child to accommodate a parent in 
an emergency, and impracticable and unreasonable to 
extend like assistance to a fellow-child. But let it be 
observed, in any case, that we make no objection to the 
joint action of several States in the premises : we only 
express a decided opinion that it will never be brought 
about. 

It remains, then, for each State to make provision 
for herself. We must consider the subject in this 
point of view, if we are to give it any practical con- 
sideration at all. No one State — not even New York 
or Pennsylvania, has such a number of insane convicts, 
in the strict sense of the term, as would warrant the 
erection and equipment of a completely separate hos- 
pital for their exclusive care and treatment, — such a 
hospital as should furnish them the best supervision 
and attendance, and nothing less ought to be furnished 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 363 

them. The number of such convicts in this State is 
probably not many more at any one time than could 
be accommodated in Dr. Shew's "little cottage" at- 
tached to his hospital. For it is to be observed that 
the magnitude of the existing evil in this particular 
case consists not so much in its numerical extent as 
in the principle involved, and in its ramifying con- 
nections. 

The State has no right to offset economy against an 
injustice or against inhumanity; but she has a right, in 
doing justice, to study economy ; and she is likely more 
fully to meet the demands of justice and humanity on 
the whole and in the long run, when she makes her 
plans with a far-seeing and systematic economy, than 
when she indulges in spasmodic extravagance. 

It may be assumed as another settled thing, that the 
State will never establish an entirely separate hospital, 
separate from all connection either with prisons or 
with ordinary hospitals, for the exclusive accommodation 
of twenty or thirty " insane convicts" and provide it 
with all the appointments of a complete hospital for 
the care and treatment of the insane. This plan may 
be dismissed as equally visionary and illusory with the 
other. 

But it is not to be forgotten that, besides the strictly 
insane convicts, there are other analogous and closely- 
bordering classes of insane persons yet to be provided 
for in this State : — (1.) Those who have been convicted 
of crime, but have served out their sentences and con- 
tinue insane; and of these, there may be nearly as 
many as of the others. (2.) Those who have been 
charged with crime, but found insane before trial or 



364 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

sentence ; these are a class as numerous, probably, as 
the insane convicts, and yet they are not insane con- 
victs. (3.) Those who have committed terrible acts of 
violence or destruction, as homicide, arson, burglary, 
&c, and have been acquitted on the ground of in- 
sanity, but who, for the safety of the community, must 
be kept under the most watchful and perhaps rigorous 
restraint, as well as provided with the most skillful 
curative treatment. All these classes are now in our 
jails and penitentiaries or poor-houses, or are by law 
liable to be there, and other classes besides them;* and 
their case is be provided for as well as that of the 
strictly insane convicts. And even if a special hospital 
should be provided for insane convicts, in connection 
with some prison or penitentiary, and on the prison 
ground, rather than in connection with one of the State 
lunatic asylums, and with the imperfect appointments 
and supervision which must needs characterize such an 

* The following facts are reported by the general agent of this board under 
date November 1st : — 

Insane frequently sent to prison, sometimes as many as eight or ten at a time, 
who are kept until the court decides what disposition to make of them. 

One lunatic sentenced November 13th, 1868, for ten days, to enter bail for good 
behavior. In default of bail he has been confined ever since. The cause of his 
detention is the want of suitable accommodations in the county almshouse. 

Eight insane were sent to this prison in 1872, all of whom were transferred to 
the county almshouse. 

/ One lunatic confined since last winter, was sent here from the poor-house for 
safety, not being able to keep her at the latter. 

One " criminal insane," confined nearly six years under a " charge " of arson. 

One man charged with having stolen a horse was acquitted on the ground of 
ins.inity, but is still confined. 

One committed for threat to kill. 

One man not charged with crime committed for safe-keeping. 

Insane frequently committed. 

One charged with attempt to shoot suffers under mental disorder. 

Insane frequently committed. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 365 

establishment, considered as a mere department of the 
prison, we will not ask now whether this is all that is 
due to the "insane convicts" themselves ; but we do ask 
whether those other classes of insane persons ought 
to be sent to such a hospital, to associate with the in- 
sane convicts in a department of a prison ? Either 
that, or left in the cells of the jails and penitentiaries 
or poor-houses, where they are. But it is asked, why 
not send them, in such a case, to the ordinary lunatic 
hospitals ? We answer by asking why they are not 
uniformly sent there now ? or why, when sent there, 
they are exposed to be remanded to the prison cells ? 

It may be said that this very class of " criminal in- 
sane" are in the hospitals, and that the "returns" to 
this board, from these institutions, present this fact 
continually. We have not denied or disputed the fact. 
We have not found fault with the little good that is 
done ; but only with the great wrong-doing which so 
completely obscures and over-shadows it. The law 
should declare the rights of every citizen, and vindicate 
them uniformly and without exception, especially the 
rights of the poor and defenseless. 

In fact, the whole question is narrowed down to these 
points : — 

1. It is agreed on all hands that neither prisons nor 
ordinary hospitals, with the ordinary arrangements, are 
fit places for the custody and treatment of "insane 
convicts." 

2. The co-operation of several States in establishing 
or maintaining a special hospital for that purpose is 
out of the question. 



366 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

3. It is equally out of the question for one State — 
for this State — to provide for the exclusive use of this 
class of insane an entirely separate institution, with 
the proper hospital equipment and superintendence. 

4. Their special hospital, therefore, if they are to have 
any, must either be upon the grounds of a prison and 
an appendage to it, with the imperfect and insufficient 
supervision of the prison physician, the attendance of 
prison overseers or keepers, and the atmosphere of 
prison associations, or upon the grounds of some State 
hospital, so as to be under the same supervision of 
high and appropriate medical character, the same 
attendance and the same curative influences ; though, 
while a department of the hospital, it may be made as 
completely secure, and kept as separate from it as 
may be thought best ; — to be denominated, not " the 
convict department," or " the criminal department," 
but simply " the special department of such a hos- 
pital." This remains the only practical alternative. 

If the former course is chosen, the patients will not 
be secured that degree of skillful treatment and of 
humane and careful attendance which is their due, and 
without which there is small prospect of their recovery; 
and, what is perhaps more, it would be utterly unjust 
and outrageous to retain those other classes of the 
insane, — if placed in the same hospital with the con- 
victs, — not only in connection with those convicts, but 
in association with the scenes and the character and 
the odium of the penitentiary. Even that might, in- 
deed, be an improvement upon their present condition; 
but in principle and in fact, the wrong inflicted upon 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 367 

them would be the same ; they would still be con- 
signed to the penitentiary. Either this, we say again, 
or they must be sent to ordinary hospitals. 

If, on the other hand, the latter alternative is chosen, 
then this special or separate department of the hospital, 
instead of being regarded as properly intended for in- 
sane convicts, may and should be regarded as intended 
chiefly, and in the first instance, for the accommodation 
and safe-keeping of the three {and perhaps other} classes 
of insane persons above described ; and the far less 
numerous class of insane convicts may be regarded as 
being admitted, in the character of insane, to a higher 
position than, as convicts, they could claim; and mean- 
time, the infamy of incarcerating innocent and helpless 
men and women in the criminal's dungeon would be 
done away, while the ordinary hospitals would be 
relieved from the charge of some of the insane, who 
require the most special and expensive arrangements 
for their safe-keeping. // zuould not be that the insane 
of these other classes zuould be thrust into a convict hos- 
pital; but convicts would be admitted to a hospital 
intended for other classes. And even this need not con- 
tinue, and should continue no longer than till the State 
should feel justified in establishing a totally sepaj'ate 
hospital for the insane convicts themselves. If, till then, 
it be thought a wrong- to these other classes of luna- 
tics, that convicts, though insane like themselves and 
equally irresponsible, should be thrust upon their 
society at all, we answer that among these classes as 
little of actual association or intercourse might be 
allowed, even within this separate department or wing 
of the hospital, which they would occupy in common, 



36& CARE OF THE INSANE. 

as might be thought advisable. At all events, to be 
obliged to be associated with insane convicts in a com- 
mon hospital is small ground for complaint, in com- 
parison with being thrust into association with felons, 
sane as well as insane, in a common prison. As to 
the inmates of the other departments of the general 
hospital, on whose grounds this special and separate 
department would stand, for us or for their friends to 
think of any hardship or degradation to them in con- 
sequence of their separate connection with this depart- 
ment, is, surely, nothing less than the most superlative 
extravagance or sentimental fastidiousness ; especially 
when it is remembered that the whole hospital is 
furnished by the liberality of the State for the accom- 
modation of poor and destitute insane people ; people, 
too, who would, otherwise, be miserably and hopelessly 
languishing in poor-houses and prisons. 

And besides, the objection to making the provision 
we have suggested for the criminal insane, so called, in 
a separate department on hospital grounds, leaves only 
the alternative of keeping them in direct association 
with unoffending insane in the poor-houses, where they 
are constantly sent; so that, as these are not "paying'' 
patients, it would seem that they are to be left out in a 
discussion of the subject, and their rights are not to be 
considered. Let us not continue, as a State, to inflict, 
by the wholesale, upon our helpless fellow-creatures, 
the most outrageous wrongs, waiting until we can be 
sure of doing right with the most mathematical pre- 
cision, or after the nicest and most perfect ideal and 
sentimental model. Let us not strain out the gnat 
while we unhesitatingly swallow the camel ! 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 369 

The suggestion that, dealing with insane convicts, 
one or two things must occur, namely, that " you must 
make a prison of the hospital or a hospital of the 
prison," and that the latter alternative is wiser and 
more humane, is, we consider, more specious than 
sound. We think we "have shown that the tendency 
of the prevailing system in this State is to "imprison " 
numbers of irresponsible insane, whose clear right it is 
to enjoy " hospital " care. Surely this should be re- 
versed even at the inconvenience (if it need be and if 
it be such) to the hospital of caring for a few individuals 
who have been guilty of crime and have since become 
insane. 

One of the strangest and most inhuman suggestions 
in regard to the insanity of convicts is, that it should 
be considered as "a part of their punishment." So far 
as their whole punishment is to be regarded as a divine 
infliction, the suggestion is entirely true and God's 
ways can undoubtedly be vindicated ; but from this 
point of view the same is true of all cases of insanity ; 
they are all visitations of Divine Providence and as 
such are just and are not to be murmured against. 
However great the suffering it is in every case a 
righteous infliction. But to say that insanity is any 
part of the punishment inflicted on convicts by the 
sentence of human law, is simply false. If it were 
true ; if by the sentence of the law men were to 
be driven insane as a punishment for their crimes — 
some, and not others, without any "rhyme or reason" 
in making the distinction — it would be nothing short of 
the grossest and most detestable inhumanity as well as 
injustice. In the case of convicts insanity is no more 



370 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

a part of their punishment than any other disease. If 
a convict is seized with fever or small-pox, shall we say 
" it is a part of his punishment," and so leave him to 
its consequences ? No ! we are to give him such diet 
and care and medical treatment as will be likely to 
insure his recovery in the shortest time. This can be 
done in the prison hospital. All we ask is that the 
same be done in case the disease is insanity. If this 
can be done ; if the best medical superintendence and 
care can be provided in connection with the prison, let 
it be done ; we have no objection to make. But if 
not, — if better provision can be supplied for these pur- 
poses in connection with some established hospital and 
at vastly less cost, — then let this latter course be pre- 
ferred and adopted. 

The whole matter is narrowed to a question of 
expediency and expense. If the State is prepared to 
meet the expense of providing the appointments of a 
first-class hospital, expressly and exclusively for twenty 
•or thirty " insane convicts," very well, let them be 
provided. But, if not, let some other adequate pro- 
vision be made. At all events, let not helpless lunatics 
be left incarcerated in the cells of prisons and poor- 
houses. 

We have said before, and we now say again, that 
neither insanity, nor the privation of proper treatment 
in case of insanity, is any part of the sentence imposed 
upon convicts by law ; and if there are still any who 
maintain that insanity is to be regarded as " a part of 
the convict's punishment," we beg only to add that 
such views as these are not shared by the distinguished 
medical gentlemen nor by the eminent philanthropic 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 37 1 

citizens who have intelligently, and with full knowledge 
of the import of what they have done, set their hands 
to the accompanying memorials to the legislature, 
praying your honorable bodies to redress the wrongs, 
not merely or chiefly of insane convicts, but of the 
several classes of insane poor, upon whose defense we 
have entered, against not only the injurious insinua- 
tions of interested parties, but the actual personal 
injuries and sufferings which are continuously heaped 
upon them in defiance of every impulse of humanity 
as well as every sober and righteous conviction of 
reason and sound judgment. 

To the Board of Public Charities of the State of Penn- 
sylvania : 

The undersigned, practicing physicians of the cities 
of Pittsburg and Allegheny, request your board to 
take action looking to the repeal or modification of 
some of the provisions of law in relation to the treat- 
ment of insane, more especially of those who have 
been acquitted on the ground of insanity or who have 
become insane while incarcerated in prison or peni- 
tentiary. 

We understand that the laws of this State in refer- 
ence to these unfortunates are such, that in some cases 
the courts are expressly forbidden to commit them to 
the hospitals unless they are deemed speedily curable; 
and that in cases where insane criminals or persons 
acquitted on the ground of insanity have been sent by 
the court to the hospital, the board of managers 
and superintendent or physician, if they deem them 



372 



CARE OF THE INSANE, 



incurable, may send them back to the jail or peniten- 
tiary from which they came. 

We are assured that such treatment of the insane, 
whether criminals or not, is inhuman ; and knowing as 
we do that a prison or penitentiary is not and cannot 
be a fitting place for the treatment of human beings so 
sadly afflicted, whether incurable or not, we earnestly 
appeal to you, and through you to the legislature of 
our State, to have such a change made in the laws as 
will effectually prevent the exposure of the insane of 
any class to incarceration in our prisons, jails, or peni- 
tentiaries. Yours, &c., 



Andrew Fleming, M. D., 
Geo. D. Bruce, M. D., 
H. T. Coffey, M. D., 
F. Le Moyne, M. D., 
W. J. Estep, M. D., 
J. N. Dickson, M. D., 
Thos. W. Shaw, M. D., 
John Dickson, M. D., 
A. W. McCoy, M. D., 
John S. Dickson, M. D., 
W. Snively, M. D., 

Pittsburg, December, 1873. 



A. M. Pollock, M. D., 
W. C. Reiter, M. D., 
Julian Rogers, M. D., 
R. B. Mowry, M. D., 
C. B. King, M. D., 
J. B. Murdoch, M. D., 
W. R. Hamilton, M. D., 
Jas. King, M. D., 
Jas. McCann, M. D., 
T. C. Rhoads, M. D., 
James Macfarlane, M. D. 



Philadelphia, December, 1873. 

To the Legislature of Pennsylvania : 

The undersigned, members of the medical profes- 
sion, being aware of the sad condition of the " poor ' 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 



373 



and the " criminal insane," who are suffering cruel per- 
sonal wrongs and constant deterioration of their mental 
and bodily condition in the jails and poor-houses of the 
State, respectfully appeal to your honorable bodies to 
provide such legislation as will effectually secure the 
admission and detention of these classes in the State 
hospitals for the insane so long as their malady re- 
quires it. 

We believe that both humanity and public duty de- 
mand such legislation for the relief of wrongful suffer- 
ing and for the restoration to health and usefulness of 
these afflicted and injured classes. 



S. D. Gross, M. D., 
Joseph Pancoast, M. D., 
Alfred Stille, M. D., 
Francis G. Smith, M. D., 
S.Weir Mitchell, M. D., 
William Pepper, M. D., 
D. Hayes Agnew, M. D., 
J. Forsyth Meigs, M. D., 



Edw. Hartshorne, M. D., 
Caspar Morris, M. D., 
J. M. Da Costa, M. D., 
Hiram Corson, M. D., 
Horatio C. Wood, M. D., 
John H. Packard, M. D., 
F. F. Maury, M. D. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of Pennsyl- 
vania: 

We gladly unite our names with those of the emi- 
nent jurists, the distinguished physicians, the inspect- 
ors and wardens of the penitentiaries, and other noted 
personages, familiar with the subject, in the appeal of 
the Board of Public Charities to your honorable bodies 
to redress, by proper legislation, the wrongs of the 



374 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

"poor" and the "criminal" insane, who are now con- 
signed to the jails and almshouses of the State, and 
who should, properly, be placed in the State hospitals 
for the insane, which were established by the public 
for their reception, their care, and remedial treatment. 



James J. Barclay, 
Joseph R. Chandler, 
Mahlon H. Dickinson, 
Henry C. Carey, 
Isaac Lea, 
John O. James, 
James Thompson (late 
Chief Justice), 

December ist, 1873. 



Wm. Bacon Stevens, 
John Welsh, 
Caleb Cope, 
John M. Whitall, 
William Bigler, 
Asa Whitney, 
M. Simpson, Bishop. 



After the fullest investigation of facts and the ma- 
turest reflection upon the case, we are constrained to 
declare that, in our clear conviction and judgment, 
every consideration of humanity, justice, propriety, and 
expediency is combined in favor of placing the special 
hospital for the "criminal insane" so called, including ', 
incidentally and temporarily, "insane convicts" on the 
grounds of some State hospital, so as to be under a 
common superintendence therewith, rather than within 
the purlieus of any prison. 

We, therefore, most earnestly renew our recommen- 
dation that such a separate hospital department be 
speedily provided, with the proper construction and 
arrangements for the purposes indicated, on the 
grounds of the Danville hospital. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 375 

We further feel constrained to suggest — and we do 
it with much hesitation and with. sincere respect for all 
parties — that, in forming a judgment of this scheme, a 
preponderating weight ought not to be attached to 
the opinions of parties who may have any personal 
interest or convenience involved in the question, how- 
ever respectable they may be, and even though they 
present themselves in the character of experts. The 
authority of experts is limited to their particular pro- 
fessional sphere. Their proper office is to serve as 
witnesses and not as judges ; and any intelligent and 
disinterested layman, who, by personal observation 
and thorough study, has made himself acquainted with 
the condition of the insane in our penitentiaries, jails, 
poor-houses, and hospitals, is as well (perhaps better) 
qualified to judge as they are of the broad features of 
any plan proposed for ameliorating that condition; — to 
judge what is consistent with or demanded by the dic- 
tates of justice, humanity, and the public good. 

We bee also to susfgest that, for examining- and de- 
termining what persons should be transferred from the 
prisons or poor-houses or other hospitals, to the sepa- 
rate hospital department above recommended, or there- 
from to prison or the other hospitals, the law should 
provide that either the Board of Public Charities, by 
their general agent or some other commissioner or 
commissioners specially appointed, — who should make 
themselves thoroughly acquainted with the condition 
and wants of the insane throughout the Common- 
wealth (z. e., of such as are kept under detention and 
restraint), who could be supposed to have no interest 
to subserve but those of justice, humanity, and the 



37& CARE OF THE INSANE. 

public good, and who could act systematically and on 
general and impartial principles, — should have the 
ultimate control, with such advice from the superin- 
tendents of the State hospitals and other experts as 
they may require; or as in the case of the New York 
law in this behalf, with the aid and advice of a com- 
missioner of lunacy, specially appointed to aid the 
Board of Public Charities in their action. 

If your honorable bodies should prefer the appoint- 
ment of an independent commission, this board will, of 
course, be entirely satisfied. 

In all this, we presume, of course, that the courts 
would, in the first instance, make such disposition of 
the insane, who come under their judicial cognizance, 
as they should by law be authorized or required to do. 
Provision might also be made for carrying up any 
decision of the aforesaid commission or of the general 
agent of this board which may be alleged to be erro- 
neous or unjust, to some court, to be reviewed and 
either confirmed or reversed. It is remarkable that in 
the late convention of superintendents of the insane, 
to which reference has before been made, one of its 
members, having alluded to the provision of the New 
York law, empowering a judge to dispose, according 
to his discretion, of persons acquitted of murder and 
other crimes on the ground of insanity — sending them 
either to a convict hospital or some other, exclaimed, 
" Too great a sweep of power for one man !" And 
almost immediately after another member naively 
declared that " persons acquitted of a criminal act on 
the ground of insanity should be placed in the hospital 
for the insane, and the moment the superintendent 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 377 

considers him a fit subject for the asylum for convicts 
he should be sent there" ! 

The truth is, the very fact of the malady being 
obscure, and. thus causing the general public to neglect 
its victims, excepting through mere curiosity, makes it 
important that the State, representing the community, 
should have a special agency whose duty it shall be to 
scrutinize the condition and needs of this class. Such 
a commission can understand these, as well as the 
physicians or attendants, and have no considerations 
of personal convenience to warp the judgment. The 
simple point of diagnosis of the particular phase of 
the malady is all in which it would necessarily be 
deficient. 

It is the universal practice of governments which 
appoint commissions to constitute them of laymen. 

We have said that the wrongs of the insane in prisons 
and poor-houses continue as they w#re when Miss 
Dix's " Memorial " caused the State to provide a hos- 
pital for their alleviation. We now say that, although 
every hospital built and projected has been recom- 
mended to the legislature with the same view, and 
seemingly with the same design, the system pursued 
has never extinguished and never will extinguish or 
even abate the evil. There are twelve hundred of 
these (outside of Philadelphia, where alone there are 
one thousand and fifty in the almshouse asylum) 
suffering incarceration and neglect. The unnecessary 
costliness of these hospital establishments for the indi- 
gent insane, and the liberal admission into them of 
"paying patients" forbid the realization of the inten- 
tions and the desires of the legislature and the public. 



2,7% CARE OF THE INSANE. 

In conclusion, we think we may assume the following 
as established principles or settled points : — 

i. The State is bound to provide, not only for the 
safe-keeping, but for the proper care and treatment of 
all her insane poor. 

2. Neither jails, penitentiaries, nor poor-houses are 
proper places for their detention or treatment, what- 
ever may be the character of their insanity, or whether 
it be recent or of long standing — curable or incurable. 

3. A person while insane can be guilty of no crime, 
and it is both unjust and inhuman to consign innocent 
men and women to the ignominious cells of jails and 
penitentiaries, or to the foul kennels of poor-houses, 
simply because, though insane and irresponsible, they 
are "dangeroifs to be at large." 

4. Even insane convicts ought not to be retained in 
the cells of prisons, but transferred to some hospital 
where they may be both safely kept and receive appro- 
priate medical treatment. 

In view of the foregoing admitted facts and princi- 
ples, this board begs to renew and repeat, by way of 
summary, the following recommendations, and most 
earnestly to urge them upon the attention of the 
legislature : — 

1. That the law of April 8th, 1861, be repealed, or 
amended, in the points indicated in this report. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 379 

2. That the State should make prompt and adequate 
provision in general State hospitals for all the insane 
poor in the Commonwealth, determine by law how 
their expenses should be paid, require the several 
counties either to make equally suitable provisions in 
proper hospitals for their insane poor, or to send them 
to the State hospitals, and require the authorities of 
these hospitals to receive and retain them as long as 
they need hospital care. 

3. That a separate wing or department of one of the 
State hospitals — to be under the charge of its superin- 
tendent — should be suitably constructed, arranged, and 
equipped for the reception, custody, and proper medical 
treatment (1) of those persons who continue insane after 
completing the period of their sentence for crime ; (2) 
of those who, being charged with the commission of 
crime while sane, are adjudged insane before trial or 
sentence ; (3) of those who are acquitted of certain 
crimes, as murder, arson, rape, burglary, &c, on the 
ground of insanity, and are adjudged too dangerous 
to be discharged, and, (4) perhaps, of other dangerous 
lunatics ; — all these to be sent either to this depart- 
ment or to the ordinary hospitals, according to the 
discretion of the court or of the proper commission. 

4. That all other insane persons who are brought 
up for the sentence of the courts should be sent to 
the ordinary hospitals, so that no insane persons in 
any case should be committed to prison. 

5. That, till an entirely separate hospital may be pi'o- 
vided for their accommodation, "insane convicts " should 



380 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

be admitted to appropriate quarters in the above-men- 
tioned special department, — their insanity to be ascer- 
tained and their transfer regulated according to pro- 
visions of law, and they themselves allowed as much 
or as little association with the inmates of this depart- 
ment as the superintendent of the hospital shall judge 
proper and expedient. 

6. That a special commission, appointed for the 
purpose, or the Board of Public Charities of the Com- 
monwealth, be authorized to transfer from the other 
State hospitals to the special department above pro- 
posed, and from that to the ordinary hospitals, such 
persons as upon due examination and inquiry shall 
be judged proper. Whether this same commission 
should have authority to remove insane persons from 
prison to the special hospital department, we leave 
without any expression of opinion. Definite provisions 
as to this might be prescribed by statute. 

7. Inasmuch as there are strong and well-founded 
objections to condemning any person as incurably in- 
sane beforehand, and as the presence of incurables is no 
more disadvantageous to the curable, and often less 
so, than of some others who are curable, the board 
are not prepared to recommend their systematic sepa- 
ration, but, under the presumption that general hos- 
pitals will be provided for all the insane poor, leave 
them to be retained in the several hospitals and dis- 
tributed in each as the superintendents may deem 
most advisable. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 381 

Such are our recommendations, and we present and 
urge them, not as theories, but as practical sugges- 
tions, looking to positive and immediate action. 

We beg to call the particular attention of the mem- 
bers of the general assembly to the fact that most of 
these recommendations are supported and guaran- 
teed, not by the mere opinion, but by the direct 

TESTIMONY OF THIS BOARD AND ITS GENERAL AGENT | 

and not only so, but by both the opinions and the 
testimony o? the present and former judges of our 

CRIMINAL COURTS, THE JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT, 

and by the inspectors and wardens of our peniten- 
tiaries, as well as by those of many superintendents of 
the insane, whose declarations on this behalf are 
embodied in this report ; as also by those of learned 
physicians and intelligent philanthropists, who have 
made the facts of this case a subject of special examina- 
tion and study ; to which many other names might 
have been added from all parts of the State, if pains 
had been taken to secure them ; and, finally, by the 

EXAMPLE AND EXPERIENCE OF OTHER STATES. 



ADDENDUM TO PLEA. 

i 

PAYING PATIENTS IN STATE LUNATIC HOSPITALS FOR THE 

INSANE. 

The fact that so great a number of the poor and 
" criminal," though irresponsible, insane of this Com- 
monwealth are now languishing in the county poor- 
houses or prisons, notwithstanding all the generous 



382 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

provision made for them in the State hospitals, is be- 
lieved to be traceable, in a large degree, to another 
fact, that more than half of the inmates of some of 
these hospitals are and have been not poor but paying 
patients. This is especially the case with the hospital 
at Harrisburg. In behalf of this hospital, it has, indeed, 
been given out of late that, had not the superintendent 
sent the cases to Danville, the proportion of patients 
from the authorities of the counties would have been 
greater than those from friends. In answer, it is stated 
in the report of the Dixmont Hospital just issued (and 
this is a private institution, aided by the State), that, 
since the opening of that institution in 1862, one thou- 
sand two hundred and forty-nine of its patients have 
been sent by friends, and one thousand two hundred 
and eighty-eight by authorities in charge of the poor; 
while at Harrisburg the proportion has been two thou- 
sand two hundred and sixteen by friends, and one 
thousand two hundred and seventy-eight by the au- 
thorities. 

This state of things is made a subject of grave com- 
plaint by the Board of Public Charities. But a serious 
attempt seems to be made (in some quarters) to de- 
fend this policy, even while it implies and necessitates 
the exclusion of so many of the insane poor. 

We take leave to introduce here the statement made 
on this subject by this board in their report recently 
presented to the legislature, showing that they had 
viewed and grasped the question in all its bearings: — 

" It may be said, and perhaps with truth, that in 
many cases the friends of insane patients who can 
furnish the smaller sum required at the State hospital 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 383 

for their support would not be able to meet the 
heavier charges of a private asylum ; and that, there- 
fore, such insane patients must be thus admitted at the 
hospital or sent to the poor-house. This idea seems 
highly plausible, and might at first receive favor from 
inconsiderate persons. But upon reflection it clearly 
appears unsound in theory ; and upon experience it 
proves highly objectionable. If these patients are 
poor, why should precisely this class of poor patients 
have precedence of those who are still poorer ? And 
if they are rich — as by the terms of the statute all 
4 ' paying" patients are, then the law expressly gives 
the poor the precedence over them. Besides, all these 
middle measures of giving public aid to the poor are 
found in practice to be dangerous, and liable to great 
abuses on the part both of the recipients and the 
almoners of the public bounty. This case has proved 
itself, in our judgment, no exception to the general 
rule. 

" It may be suggested that it has been thought well to 
have some paying patients in order to give respect- 
ability to the institution. 

"We can scarcely listen to the suggestion with 
patience, or answer it with calmness. If all the poor 
were already provided for and accommodated, the sug- 
gestion might pass ; although we should not make it. 
We should never propose that the State should tax 
herself to furnish hospital accommodations to the rich 
in any case, whether by way of gratuity or of profitable 
speculation. But this is not the case. The poor are 
not all enjoying the care and treatment of the hospitals ; 
and shall they by the hundred and the thousand 



384 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

continue to languish into idiocy, or rave out their mis- 
erable lives in the cells of prisons, with malefactors and 
felons, or in the more wretched and hopeless recep- 
tacles of county poor-houses, in order that the hos- 
pital, which receives a few score of them, may be 
respectable, and its superintendent and officers may 
not find themselves in charge of an institution of mere 
paupers ?" 

The attempt is now made to defend the course pur- 
sued at the State hospitals, by exciting a special public 
sympathy in favor of the unfortunate class of " respect- 
able " poor persons, who may have become insane, — 
persons having respectable connections and respectable 
antecedents, whose friends can now pay a moderate 
sum for their treatment in the hospital, instead of their 
being received — or rather rejected — as paupers ; but 
who, if refused on those terms, could not have their 
expenses paid at a private institution, and would simply 
go to increase the number of the pauper insane who 
require to be supported and cared for at the public 
expense. 

Now, we would not diminish one jot the public in- 
terest for this worthy class of unfortunate persons. 
We share it in its fullest extent. We rejoice that for 
them is found a special chord of sympathy in the sus- 
ceptibilities of the public mind, and, for this very 
reason, we think they should not be received as pay- 
ing patients, and that to the exclusion of the poor, in 
the State hospitals. These patients have friends and 
some means, and a strong hold upon personal sym- 
pathy ; if they need aid, it is most properly to be 
afforded them through private and not through public 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 385 

channels ; and we believe that in such cases it would 
be so afforded, and that they would generally be pro- 
vided for at private institutions, if they were not re- 
ceived at the. State hospitals. But who is to provide 
for those who have no friends and no means and no 
claim upon any man's sympathy except their helpless 
misery and the shocking repulsiveness of their squalid 
and abandoned condition ? We simply maintain that 
it is these the State must provide for first of all. If, 
after having adequately provided for them, the State 
has still the means and the disposition to make public 
appropriations for eking out the scanty means of all 
her less fortunate citizens, who, though not strictly 
poor, are in comparatively reduced circumstances, we 
might or we might not object to her so doing ; but for 
the State to undertake this sort of communistic charity 
now, to the neglect of the absolutely helpless poor, is, 
we maintain, simply preposterous. Moreover, we do 
not believe that the superintendent of a great public 
charity should be intrusted with this sort of discretion 
in selecting its recipients. He should not be exposed 
to the danger of abusing an enormous power of per- 
sonal patronage^ of consulting his personal convenience, 
or being influenced by the special solicitations of any- 
body's friends in dispensing the bounty of the State. 

We may be permitted to refer to some cases of the 
misery of the insane poor which have fallen more or 
less directly under our own observation. 

1. A young man at county poor-house, whose 

father had treated him with such uniform brutality, and 
exacting demands upon his ability to labor, as literally 



386 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

to drive him crazy. The slightest sound startled him. 
He was afraid of the approach of the quietest step, 
even that of a cat. Night and day he was thus agi- 
tated by terror ; and he found in the poor-house no 
possible care or treatment which could alleviate his 
misery or promise the least hope of recovery. 

2. In the same place there was another young man, 
whose employer had abused him by stoning him in the 
field when his work was not satisfactory, striking head 
or body, as the case might be. This boy never re- 
moved his hand from his head at the part where the 
stone struck him last, and by which his mental health 
was broken down. 

3. The old man who was starved to death in a poor- 
house the other day, medicine being forced into him, 
but food being considered unnecessary. 

4. "The attractive young lady" driven to insanity 
by her seducer, and for the last twenty years occupy- 
ing a cell of filthiness, with wet litter for a bed, resting 
like a beast upon her haunches, and so permanently 
cramped as to be capable of no movement but such as 
resembled that of a frog. 

5. The patient in another poor-house, who exists 
perpetually chained by the wrists to the ceiling, lest he 
may tear his clothes. 

6. The young girl in shackles at another poor- 
house, who, at the name of " mother," utters sobs 
whose pathos would touch the most callous heart. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 387 

7. And that other gentle-faced child, whose malady 
has been caused by religious over-excitement, seeking 
in vain for repose amid the shrieks of the intermingled 
inmates of the insane department of the poor-house. 

8. "The splendid old man " in chains for forty years 

in poor-house, released by the general agent 

of this board, himself aiding in filing off his chains. 

Add to the foregoing specimens the following, which 
we here reproduce from the report of the board : — 

" In February last a visit was paid to this almshouse, 
and an insane inmate was seen — a young woman over 
twenty years of age — whose whole dress consisted of 
a thin chemise with short sleeves, a single skirt, and a 
pair of shoes. When brought before the visitors, a 
borrowed cloak was thrown over her shoulders. She 
was blue with cold, and utterly filthy in person. Her 
cell had the appearance of having undergone a recent 
hasty washing, but was pervaded with an odor loath- 
some in the extreme. On the day of this visit, the 
thermometer fell to fourteen degrees. 

" In March another visit was paid to the institution 
by several gentlemen in a body. Only one portion of 
the building was visited, which is supposed to be de- 
voted exclusively to women. In one cell was a young 
woman, the one already referred to. Her cell was 
without any furniture whatever ; her bed consisted of 
one blanket ; her clothing of a ragged chemise, open to 
her waist, and one scanty skirt and a pair of shoes. 
She was indescribably unclean, and alive with vermin. 
Her cell reeked with a sickening odor, the result of a 



3%S CARE OF THE INSANE. 

total absence of all conveniences of cleanliness. She 
shivered with cold while in the presence of her visitors, 
the thermometor standing at the time several degrees 
below the freezing point. 

" Opposite to the cell which we have very faintly de- 
scribed was another. The short day had already 
faded into dusk, and, as the light was thrown through 
a little aperture in the door, it fell upon two wretched 
women, both of whom were absolutely without a single 
garment to cover them. One of the poor creatures sat 
crouching in the corner, with a small blanket drawn 
across her shoulders, while the other was crawling on 
all-fours on the floor, without even this poor apology 
of any remnant of human decency. There was not a 
particle of furniture in the cell ; and there, on this 
wintry March night, in an atmosphere which the wit- 
nesses declare to have been utterly horrible, were 
these two human beings, brought down far below the 
level of our domestic brutes. 

" In an adjoining cell the visitors found a man lying 
on an old mattress, the only sign of furniture which 
they saw in either of the rooms inspected. They were 
informed that the inmate was a woman ; but, upon one 
of the gentlemen calling to him, he sat up, and it was 
seen that it was a man. The attendant, with some 
confusion, explained that he must have been brought 
in while he was away. 

" We found the female insane department in a 
shocking condition ; so bad that it would be impossible 
to give a description of the place on paper. In some 
cells there were two or more women confined ; some, 
without any clothing, lying on the floor without mat- 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 389 

tress, carpet, or anything else, except an old Govern- 
ment blanket. The place had a horrible, putrid odor. 

"We examined one woman who was quite young. 
I was afraid to go near her, as she seemed covered 
with vermin. We were all much shocked by the visit, 
and I think I shall remember it as long as I live." 

And the general agent reports the following amongst 
many like instances of abuses and neglect in similar 
establishments : — 

" Insane, totally neglected — morally, physically, and 
medically ; less attention is given to them than would 
be given to the lowest animals ; four are incapable of 
self-care, confined in filthy cells ; one a female, has 
great neighborhood notoriety, from sad incidents con- 
nected with her history. Known as an intelligent, 
esteemed, and attractive young lady, the daughter of a 
well-known inhabitant of the neighborhood, she fell a 
victim to the arts of the seducer. Insanity is alleged 
to be caused by her disappointment. This occurred 
twenty-one years ago. The sad case is rendered still 
more painful by her present forlorn condition. A bed 
of straw upon a damp, dirty floor, into which the exter- 
nal light can find no entrance, is the only furniture. 
A seat, a chair, or a bench, has apparently never been 
furnished ; the consequence of which is that the muscles 
of the lower extremities, from the cramped position in 
which she was always found, have become permanently 
contracted, so that the only movement of which she is 
capable is one similar to that of a frog." 

"An unusually large number of insane, many of 
chronic form, but quite a number of strongly marked 
cases, who are confined and had been chained to the 



39° CARE OF THE INSANE. 

floor until released by my direction. A young girl of 
seventeen years of age confined in a gloomy cell ; since 
removed by my request to the State hospital, where 
she is gradually being restored." 

" Twenty-two insane ; twelve are kept in close con- 
finement, some in chains ; one always chained to the 
ceiling to prevent him from tearing his clothes ; some 
entirely nude ; at least six with straw litters ; not one 
of the twelve was ever removed into the open air. All 
confined in apartments opposite each other, a narrow 
corridor extending between them. The effect of this 
close proximity was to make the day and night hideous 
with the distressing shrieks and yells of the wretched 
and maltreated madmen." 

" Eight insane ; one of whom hand-cuffed, one hop- 
pled, one female confined to her room." 

" One hundred and thirty-five inmates, four blind, 
one palsied, seven idiots ; seven cells in the basement, 
with insane in each, in a revolting condition." 

" Twenty insane ; of these about eight were confined, 
not to their uncomfortable cells only, but restrained by 
iron fetters, long after the necessity had passed away. 
These were removed at my instigation, and the doors 
of their cells were opened, to give them the benefit of 
the open air and exercise, with decided improvement in 
their condition." 

Now, all these cases, and others without number, 
have had their histories (histories as touching to human 
sensibilities as any which the more " respectable " poor 
can furnish), which should excite interest and sympathy, 
and should also command the efforts and influence of 
good men to create the needed revolution in the system 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 391 

now pursued at the State hospitals, to stop it at once 
and forever. 

It is a fraud on the public to allow these wards of 
the State — and who alone of this class are strictly 
such — to go down to certain misery and death, while 
providing from the public resources for citizens who 
can be helped by their own means or the means of 
friends. 

The poor, neglected and abused orphans and seams- 
tresses and widows' sons and daughters, whom we 
meet under pauper care at the poor-houses, would 
not be treated even there as they are treated, if they 
had friends who would look after them and protect 
them. It is because they have no friends to help them 
that their condition is so forlorn. 

When the State comes to take care of them, as she, 
first of all, should do, the other class — those who can 
pay from three dollars and fifty cents to five dollars or 
six dollars a week — will be provided for as they are else- 
where, and as others who are slightly above them in 
the scale of affluence. There are homes and hospitals 
for all of this latter class, for widows and orphans, for 
old men and children, whose support is, in part, paid 
for by themselves and friends, and the deficiency made 
up by private benevolence, often supplemented from 
the public coffers. 

This should and would be the resource of the "pay- 
ing patients" now in the State hospitals, if, by the 
personal system introduced there, the State had not 
been drawn away from her clear duty to enlist in a 
scheme of charity which is never recognized as the 
proper function or duty of the State — certainly not as 



39 2 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

her first duty. It would be just as reasonable to 
devote the almshouses proper to the maintenance of 
paying inmates and exclude the indigent, leaving them 
to perish. Just recur for a moment to the cases of 
wretchedness described above and imagine one of 
those poor creatures (if it were possible) to present 
himself at Harrisburg and implore admission to the 
State Lunatic Hospital and to receive for answer, 
"How much can your friends pay? Can you pay 
three dollars, four dollars, or five dollars per week for 
your treatment here ? If not, if you have neither 
friends nor money, we have no room for you ; we are 
already crowded, chiefly by those who can pay ; this 
hospital was not established especially for such as you ; 
those who can pay must have precedence over those 
who cannot ; you must return to your poor-house or 
prison and die there.'' 

What cooler mocking of humanity can be conceived 
of than this ? Can such an answer be a true interpre- 
tation of the mind and purpose of the Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania in founding her hospitals for the 
insane ? Is the wretchedly poor, the absolutely naked 
and destitute lunatic, whose only claim is his misery, 
his helplessness, his friendlessness, to be met with the 
gentlemanly and supercilious questions: — "What is 
your social position ? Where are your friends ? Where 
is your money?" It is too outrageous to think of; 
there are no words whereby the enormity can be prop- 
erly characterized. 

Was ever an utterly friendless, helpless, destitute, 
naked, and starving pauper turned away from the 
doors of an almshouse in any Christian or civilized 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 393 

land, to wait outside till all (or any) of the more respect- 
able poor, who could pay something for their food 
and clothing, should have their wants supplied ? Was 
he ever told by the superintendent or managers of 
such an institution, " we have no room for such as you 
just now ; you are too poor and friendless to find a 
lodging here ; the sympathies of the public are, in the 
first place, for the more respectable class of indigent 
persons ; you must give place to your betters ; stay out 
in the cold and die as quietly as you can"? Has the 
State ever adopted, or is she ready to adopt, such 
principles as those in the administration of her bounty? 
We leave these questions for candid and thoughtful 
men to answer ; protesting again that, for ourselves, 
we are not wanting in sympathy for the struggling suf- 
ferers of moderate or scanty means ; we have no 
quarrel against them, or against any who, in their 
Christian benevolence, may be making personal efforts 
or sacrifices to afford them assistance or relief; we 
simply insist, that the State should, first of all, make 
pi'ovision for the proper care of the absolutely destitute 
and friendless. 

In our judgment, the State cannot, at least now, 
afford to erect and maintain hospitals sufficient for the 
accommodation of both of these classes, viz., for the 
poor who can pay nothing, and for paying patients of 
scanty means ; and, if she could, she should begin with 
the former. But under the present system of receiving 
into her hospitals even a larger number of the latter 
class than of the former, the State, with all her benevo- 
lent efforts and magnificent outlay in establishing hos- 
pitals for the insane, is making no progress whatever 



394 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

towards I'elieving all of the f owner class. There are 
now twice as many of the insane poor languishing in 
the dens and dungeons of the poor-houses and prisons 
of this Commonwealth as there were when Miss Dix 
first made her appeal for their relief, and the hospital 
at Harrisburg was built in response to her touching 
memorial. 

No legerdemain in the cautious wording or adroit 
management of plausible propositions can annihilate 
that fact, or that other parallel fact, that, in the mean- 
time, nearly two-thirds of the inmates of the Harris- 
burg hospital have been "paying patients." It matters 
not what excellent resolutions, purposes, petitions, or 
kind intentions are arrayed in defense against us. 
We make no personal charges of corrupt intentions, but 
rather of mistaken proceedings. We attack a system, 
not men nor motives. 

If it be alleged that the presence of " paying patients" 
in the hospitals is not the cause of the exclusion or 
neglect of the poor, that there are now as many of the 
insane poor in the State hospitals as there would be if 
there were no "paying patients" in them; then it is 
evident, if that be true, that (the present system in 
other respects being retained) we need erect no more 
hospitals for the insane poor ; we have already hospital 
accommodations for more than twice as many of them 
as require it. Is that so ? 

Should it be said that when application is made for 
the admission of the pauper insane at the State hos- 
pitals, no recent cases, only those of long standing or 
improbable cure, are rejected ? The answer is, that 
among the "paying patients" cases of long standing 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 395 

and little likely to be cured are actually retained, and 
even admitted. If, by the contract made with friends, 
such cases might be removed from the hospital at the 
discretion of the superintendent, and are not, we do 
not see that it improves the case in any point of view. 
We have no doubt that these "paying patients" may 
be much more decent, quiet, gentlemanly, and agreeable 
inmates of the establishment, giving the superintendent 
much less distasteful and repulsive work and trouble, 
than those who might be brought to him from the foul 
dens of poor-houses or cells of prisons. All this we 
can understand ; but this is no good ground in law or 
reason, or in the view of humanity, for preferring the 
former to the latter. Should it be alleged that neither 
the county authorities nor the criminal judges are 
ever deterred or hindered from sending insane persons 
to the hospitals by being told that it is already full or 
crowded ; or should it be said that, though these 
officials are invited or encouraged by the hospital 
authorities to send the insane thither, they yet ob- 
stinately refuse or neglect to do so ; then all we have 
to say is, the laws ought at once to be so amended as 
to compel those officials to send the lunatics who are at 
their disposal to the hospital at all events ; and if then 
the poor do not come in, in such numbers as to dis- 
place the " paying patients," very well, we have no 
objection to make ; but if they do, then we say the 
" paying patients " should give way to this other class. 
We object to the present system. We demand a 
revolution. The scheme we would propose to substi- 
tute is easily understood. It is simply this : — (1) That, 
in all cases, the poor and friendless, those who cannot 



39 6 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

pay, should, in these State institutions, have precedence 
of the rich, of those who can pay; and (2) that, among 
the poor, recent cases should have the precedence of 
those of long standing, and so on, until as soon as 
possible all that need are provided for. For ourselves, 
we believe that such is the real intent of the laws as 
they now stand ; but if that is not the case, and if the 
policy hitherto pursued by the State hospitals, and par- 
ticularly by that at Harrisburg, has been, as is alleged 
by interested parties, in accordance with the existing 
laws of the State, — which we, however, on our part, 
emphatically deny, — then we ask that the laws be 
forthwith so amended as to secure the abandonment of 
that policy, and the inauguration of another, more just 
and more in conformity with the plain duty and proper 
functions of the State. 



PROVISION FOR THE INSANE POOR. 

In again presenting the claims of the insane poor to 
your honorable bodies, we are quite aware that the 
subject has already been made familiar by our frequent 
handling, and that we may labor under some disadvan- 
tage by urging the matter anew upon your attention. 
We believe, however, that, considering the subject as 
legislators, and aiming, as you will do, jointly to protect 
the interests of the State and of these, her recognized 
wards, the apprehension of importunity will not apply 
to yourselves, as may possibly be the case with such 
portion of the public as, from ignorance or indifference, 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 397 

are conscious of no responsibility in the matter. The 
majority of men, however humane their natures, prefer 
to give money as alms rather than care or considera- 
tion. They put their hands into their pockets for their 
share of the poor tax, and hold their account with the 
pauper portion of the community to be thereafter 
closed. They do not want to hear that their money 
has been misapplied, or to have their consciences or 
sympathies disturbed by any knowledge of the suffer- 
ings of the wretched creatures whom it should have 
relieved. It is only this strange but common union of 
benevolence and indifference in human proceedings 
which can explain the extraordinary spectacle that has 
for years been presented in this State, of magnificent 
hospitals on the one side, built and sustained at enor- 
mous cost by the tax-payers, for the benefit of the 
indigent insane, and, on the other, of the large majority 
of these very indigent insane, still held in almshouses, 
debarred from any reasonable chance of cure, and, 
in many cases, receiving treatment which would be an 
admitted cruelty if visited upon brutes ; chained and 
naked, lodged in pens and cages unfit for the habita- 
tion of cattle ; scantily and carelessly fed ; without 
bedding or blanket or fire during the inclemency of 
winter ; and all this in wealthy districts, filled with 
happy homes of cultured and Christian people. 

We do not propose to detail again the sickening 
minutice of our investigations. Some of these, we thank- 
fully announce to you, are buried in the dead past, 
never to be exhumed, as we believe, for a spectacle of 
sorrow and discredit to the communities which suffered 
them to exist. But we must submit, as briefly as we 



39$ CARE OF THE INSANE. 

can, certain facts and deductions which, we trust, will 
have the force to settle your convictions as to the 
folly as well as cruelty of the past systems in this 
relation, if systems they may be called, and to settle 
and establish other and better ones, which will main- 
tain the dignity and benevolence of our honorable 
State, as well as protect her financial interests from 
injudicious and unwise expenditures. 

The number of indigent insane in the State hospi- 
tals, established primarily for the maintenance, cure, 
and treatment of this class, was seven hundred and 
sixty-four on September 30th, 1874, as reported by 
the authorities of these institutions; while the number 
of the same class in the poor-houses of the State and 
under other county provision, amounted to one thou- 
sand three hundred and fifty-two at the same date, 
exclusive of the insane department of the Philadelphia 
almshouse, which contained one thousand and seventy- 
five. 

It is towards these latter — this great body of help- 
less beings — that we would direct your attention. We 
urge you to regard them critically in their actual con- 
dition, without any exaggerated sentiment or aid of the 
imagination. In every one of our county almshouses 
we find numbers of these unfortunates called " in- 
curables," held and considered as a dead-weight upon 
society, in no wise differing from the lower animals in 
intellect or efficiency, to be lodged and fed as we lodge 
and feed the brute creation, with such scant measure 
of kindness and care as the temper of the superintend- 
ent may dictate. In most cases these officials are 
chosen either from political motives or because of 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 399 

their skill and experience in farming operations ; and 
such considerations, we must admit, are not likely to 
insure a proper choice for the responsible position of 
caring for "minds diseased;" even if an almshouse was 
a place where such scientific ministering were practi- 
cable. The superintendent is expected to make the 
institution, as nearly as possible, self-supporting. The 
burden of his ability and his care-taking must be 
devoted to this preponderating effort. The insane 
inmate can give but little aid in this paramount un- 
dertaking, and he is therefore a clog and a hindrance, 
and pays the penalty of his helplessness in partial or 
absolute neglect. No consideration is given to the 
phase of his malady; no effort is made to discover 
whether it is curable or incurable ; and it is the grand 
exception when the insane inmate of a poor-house 
issues therefrom clothed in his rio-bit mind. 

The more accurate and detailed have been our in- 
vestigations into the condition of this class, the more 
are we convinced that none of God's creatures call 
upon us more urgently for help and pity than the in- 
sane man, whom we have thrust ought of sight into 
our county poor-houses and left there unnoticed for 
years. There is laid upon him every one of those 
forms of suffering which Christianity calls upon us to 
seek out and relieve; he is a stranger among stran- 
gers ; a terrible background of poverty and wretch- 
edness lies behind his advent into the place; for, 
as we all know, so general is the perhaps irrational 
but natural prejudice against these institutions, that 
nothing but utter friendlessness or the extremity of 
want can account for his entrance into it. He is in 



400 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

prison and sick; sick with a deeper disease than those 
which only kill the body; the 'man himself has lost the 
place, rights, and well-nigh the existence of a man; 
his body goes to and fro, performing its natural func- 
tions as an animal, but the living creature within, which 
made him human for good or evil ends, which gave him 
the chance to be the faithful husband and father, the 
useful citizen, the God-fearing, honest helper of his 
fellow-men, is struck with death, answers not to any 
call or summons. Surely this poor wretch, beyond 
any other man, might echo the cry of Job, " Have 
pity upon me, for the hand of God hath touched me." 

To act humanely, or even intelligently, toward any 
class, it is necessary that we should, in some degree, 
comprehend its peculiar character and needs, and its 
individual idiosyncrasies. This is not difficult to do in 
the present case. 

In the records kept by the State and other insane 
hospitals, one or two curious facts have been elicited, 
bearing strongly, by inference, on the condition of the 
same class in almshouses. 

First. — Subtracting the number whose profession or 
business is unknown, more than one-fourth of the 
whole remainder of male insane patients are farmers 
or farm laborers, and a large proportion of the female 
insane patients are the wives and daughters of the 
same class. The fact that the population of the State 
is largely agricultural does not altogether explain this 
result, almost the same disproportion being found in 
the statistics of the insane in other States and countries. 

The solitude, the lack of intercourse with other 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 40 1 

minds, the increasingly restricted routine of ideas year 
after year, all undoubtedly tend to make the agricul- 
tural life one tending to foster any disposition to 
melancholy mania. Other causes will readily suggest 
themselves to any one familiar with the habits and 
modes of thought of the population of our agricul- 
tural districts. The small farmer or farm laborer and 
his wife lead lives of hard manual toil; however pure 
or wholesome the mental atmosphere about them may 
be, it is one of exceptional narrowness and seclusion, 
where the same small subjects of thought are iterated 
and reiterated with a steady monotony. 

More than the dwellers in cities, they build on the 
good opinion of their neighbors the social rank they are 
able to hold in the small community, the members of 
which, shut out from the outside world, watch each other 
from generation to generation with exaggerated inter- 
est. Petty debts and petty savings assume an incredible 
magnitude in their morbid anxiety. Many a man and 
woman give their whole lives to hard drudging and to 
small, biting economies in order to send a boy to col- 
lege, or to free their few acres from mortgage. In 
such a solitary, narrow life, a disappointment or grief 
or physical ailment which touches the brain has leisure 
to canker and do its deadly work, which, in a life of 
less circumscribed ambitions or scope of outlook, 
would healthfully disappear by sheer force of friction. 

The deadly work at last is done ; the man is pro- 
nounced insane ; he is a helpless burden on the State ; 
his family sink into misery and poverty. Now, what 
would humanity and common sense dictate to the State 
as the proper course to pursue ? Doubtless, to cure 



4-02 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

the man, if possible ; restore him to his place as a work- 
ing citizen and the supporter of his family, and relieve 
herself of the actual burden which he has become, and 
of the impending burden of his family. The State 
hospitals ought to afford skilled medical treatment for 
his case, and that wholesome change of daily life, that 
cheerfulness, consciousness of protection and friendly 
care essential to his cure. 

What does the State do with him ? Sends him to 
the county almshouse, within sight of his own home ; — 
it may be to the almshouse which he has been taught 
to dread from his childhood as the receptacle of all 
that is degraded and vile ; forces upon him, with every 
hour, his own damning disgrace in the eyes of his 
neighbors (the only world he knows) ; teaches the 
poor, luckless being, sometimes through inhuman 
cruelty, to regard himself thenceforth as cast out 
and accursed from human brotherhood, as the lepers 
that in old times stood without the gates, crying un- 
clean ! unclean ! For no guilt but that of his misfor- 
tune, he is visited with punishment more terrible to 
him than death, — a punishment which, from the pre- 
vious habits of thought and life which we have tried to 
portray, is certain to fasten his malady upon him irrevo- 
cably. 

We have regarded this question, so far, from the side 
of the insane pauper, in the light of humanity. We 
shall now look upon it from the stand-point of public 
interest, and hope to be able to show that the confine- 
ment of this large body of useless dependents in a 
position where " cure " is impossible, is no less disad- 
vantageous to the State than to the wretched victims. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 403 

First. — It is an uncontroverted fact established by 
the authoritative statements of the highest medical 
experts, without dissent, that insanity is a physical dis- 
ease and as readily curable as other bodily maladies. 

Secondly. — The number of recent cases (cases where 
the disease has not existed over three months) cured 
under scientific hospital treatment is about seventy- 
five in every hundred, in the first six months' time. 
It has also been shown, by the same authority, that not 
over seven in every hundred of the insane confined in 
the ordinary almshouses leave them restored to health. 
Our own reports state that eighty per cent, of the in- 
sane in the State are held as incurable. 

Now, if seventy-five per cent, are curable (as they 
are, according to scientific computation, tested by ex- 
perience), and that percentage has actually been cured 
in our own hospitals, the only explanation of this ter- 
rible majority of incurables in Pennsylvania is their 
confinement in almshouses. 

We would point out as matter for your consideration, 
in passing, the different modes of treatment of this class 
of unfortunates in the almshouses and hospitals, both 
exercised under the authority of the State ; for the 
State makes the laws which control the action of the 
counties. 

The almshouse system is based upon the old theory 
by which the mind was held to be absolutely apart 
from the body. The insane man was held by the an- 
cients to be possessed by a god or a demon, and was 
either treated with reverential homage, and his maniac 
utterances received as divine oracles, or he was driven 



404 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

out, as a thing accursed, from human habitations. 
Among ourselves, but a generation ago, insanity was 
regarded with awe and dislike, as an inscrutable male- 
diction of Providence, belonging to the emotional or 
religious life of man. It was accounted for (as sudden 
deaths were then disposed of by coroners' juries) as 
coming " by the visitation of God." The almshouse 
system is, as we said, still based upon this theory. 
The unhappy wretch, cursed by this visitation of 
God, is given a straw litter, food and drink, and is 
locked in a cell covered with vermin, to wait until the 
same mysterious dispensation of power shall cure or 
kill him. We need but cite as proof the condition of 
the Philadelphia Almshouse Hospital (as favorable an 
example as exists in the State, judiciously governed by 
a skillful and humane physician), where, owing to over- 
crowding, it is necessary to place two or three patients 
in one cell, and hand-cuff them to prevent their injuring 
each other, and where, notwithstanding the hourly visits 
of attendants, the danger of murder from this forced, 
unwholesome contact, is reported by the medical su- 
perintendent as imminent, and where it has actually 
occurred on several occasions. Five hundred more 
patients are received into this institution than its 
capacity warrants. Yet this is our model almshouse, 
under the care of a skilled physician. What chance of 
cure is there here for the lunatic, hand-cuffed to keep 
him from killing or being killed ? 

The common sense and higher religious intelligence 
of mankind have fortunately discovered that in this 
case, as in every other, God works through secondary 
causes, — that insanity, as well as scrofula or tetanus, 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 405 

can be traced to physical laws and their violation. The 
material brain which is the mouth-piece of the imma- 
terial mind, is found to be subject to the same chemi- 
cal changes, the same hygienic influences, as the liver 
or the stomach. It needs medicine, rest, certain kinds 
of food as much or more than they. A guilty man 
who drops dead is not now supposed to be smitten by 
the suddenly-outstretched hand of an angry God. 
" After death it is found that the cerebral tissue is torn 
by an effusion of blood into substance." When this 
mouth-piece — this mechanical organ — is out of order, it 
necessarily misrepresents the mind. "The organic 
affections of the brain," says an eminent medical au- 
thority, "necessarily modify the mental conditions, 
not only by destroying the efficiency of a certain 
portion of the tissue, but by interfering with the due 
performance of organic changes in other parts." The 
researches into the path of knowledge, of which this is 
but the starting point, have been vigorous and accurate. 
Not only is it a matter of certainty how far and in what 
manner disorders of the mind may affect the material 
organs, but also the reflex action of the diseased body 
upon the thinking power is at last subject to plain, 
practical rules, and may be controlled and to a certain 
extent hindered. The scientific physician can not only 
decide how far the unhealthy action of the mind of a 
morbid or visionary man is due to lack of oxygen, or 
surplus of bile in the blood, but he can trace, by reasons 
founded on the solid basis of statistics, the great major- 
ity of cases of insanity and idiocy to tangible causes. 
Cretinism in certain European countries is distinctly 
traceable to the argillaceous soil and enormous deposits 



406 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

of gypsum in the hillsides ; a singular form of melan- 
choly mania prevalent among the inhabitants of La 
Bresse is produced by the malarious air of the marshes. 
M. Esquirol says that one-half the cases of insanity 
among the higher classes in France, and one-third 
among the lower, have been inherited from parents or 
ancestors. Seventy-seven per cent, of the cases at the 
Bicetre were hereditary. Epilepsy, chorea, all neural 
diseases, and consumption in the parents, manifest 
themselves in insanity in the children. In a still larger 
degree chronic alcoholism in one generation adds, in 
the next, this crowning, most terrible, calamity to its 
deadly fruit. 

The point and force of these statements lie in the 
truth that insanity, thus traced by the clear eye of 
science to its physical causes, is, like any other malady 
primary in the body, open to cure by scientific means. 
We have thus reached the cause of the fact that while 
seventy-five per cent, of "recent cases," receiving 
scientific treatment in our hospitals, are curable, eighty 
per cent, of the insane in Pennsylvania are pronounced 
incurable, owing to their detention in poor-houses. 

How does this fact affect the economy of the State ? 

Putting the question of humanity aside, it may seem 
at first view cheaper to suffer these thousands of help- 
less human beings to become inmates of almshouses, 
than to subject them to the more costly treatment of 
the hospitals. The answer is a matter of figures, not 
sentiment, and we will now endeavor to show conclu- 
sively that the truest economy will be secured by 
making the well-managed hospital the sole recipient 
of every insane man, woman, and child in the Common- 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 407 

wealth, and by making such legislative provision as 
will furnish accommodations for at least every recent 
case which may hereafter occur. 

Whatever. errors may have occurred in the census of 
1870 in the enumeration of the insane in some of the 
States, so far as it relates to the number in the State 
of Pennsylvania it may be taken as sufficiently cor- 
rect for all practical purposes. We do not assume 
that it is perfect, for that, with the machinery existing 
under present laws, is impossible ; but it is entitled to 
confidence as regards the numbers of the "unfortunate 
classes," particularly the insane, until disproved by 
facts gathered under a more systematic agency. In a 
previous report made to your honorable bodies, we 
stated that, "by the returns on file in this office, the 
number of insane maintained in institutions, or by 
authorities making reports to the Board of Public 
Charities, on September 30th, 1873, was three thousand 
eight hundred and forty-two. It is estimated that there 
are in addition about six hundred, who comprise the 
increase in county institutions since the above date, 
those who are retained under family care and those 
who wander about as outcasts, making a total of four 
thousand four hundred and forty-two." In the census, 
the number of insane on June 30th, 1870, was three 
thousand eight hundred and ninety-five ; allowing for 
the increase of the same, on September 30th, 1873, they 
would number four thousand three hundred and sixty- 
eight, being a difference of but seventy-four. A more 
remarkable evidence of the accuracy of the census is 
furnished by the investigation of the Board of State 
Commissioners of Public Charities of New York, in 



408 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

regard to the number of this afflicted class in that State. 
The prosecution of the inquiry involved the addressing 
of nearly seven thousand written and printed commu- 
nications to physicians and officers of institutions. The 
result of the investigation showed that there were 
living on December 31st, 1871, according to the reports, 
six thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. The 
census of June 30th, 1870, enumerated six thousand 
three hundred and fifty-three, to which if added the 
number obtained from the rate of increase, as shown 
by the census of 1870, would, on December 31st, 1871, 
give, as the number living, six thousand seven hundred 
and thirty- three, or only forty- two less than the number 
ascertained by the investigation of the Commissioners 
of the State Board of Public Charities of New York. 
We make these statements as confirmatory of our view 
as regards Pennsylvania, in which the enumeration of 
this afflicted class is sufficiently accurate to furnish a 
basis for any legislation for their proper care and re- 
medial treatment. 

In the third report of this board, we stated that it 
may be expected that one in one thousand six hundred 
and ninety persons in Pennsylvania will yearly become 
insane. This statement, emanating from the high 
official authority of medical experts on the subject, was 
believed at the time to be correct ; but an examina- 
tion of the returns of the hospitals for the insane, in 
regard to their admissions, and the number discharged 
therefrom as restored or died, has, in connection 
with our proved practical accuracy of enumeration of 
this class of unfortunates, given us reasons for be- 
lieving that about one in three thousand nine hundred 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 409 

and eighty-six of the population of Pennsylvania 
annually becomes insane ; that one in one thousand six 
hundred and ninety does not, is clearly shown, thus : — 

On June 30th, 1863, there were in Pennsylvania, 
according to the annual increase, as shown by the 
census, three thousand and sixty-seven insane persons. 
Upon the basis that one in one thousand six hundred 
and ninety of the population becomes insane annually, 
there would be developed from 1864 to 1873 twenty 
thousand two hundred and seventy-five cases of in- 
sanity, which, added to the number remaining from 
the preceding year, would give twenty-three thousand 
three hundred and forty-two cases in ten years. 

If this was true, what became of them ? From the 
returns of the State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg, 
Western Pennsylvania Hospital at Dixmont, Friends' 
Asylum at Frankford, Pennsylvania Hospital (Kirk- 
bride's), and the Philadelphia Hospital, there were re- 
stored in these five institutions three thousand four 
hundred and ninety-four, and one thousand nine hun- 
dred and eighty-one died within the same period, viz., 
1864 to 1873, leaving a balance of seventeen thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-seven cases, according to the 
above computation, to be accounted for. Of this num- 
ber, we know from our returns and investigations that 
there were not four thousand four hundred and forty- 
two living on September 30th, 1873, leaving a balance 
to have died, or been cured in almshouses or families, 
of thirteen thousand four hundred and twenty-five. 
This statement alone is sufficient to show how mis- 
taken is the estimate that one in one thousand six hun- 
dred and ninety of the population becomes insane. 



4io 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 



[We note in passing, in regard to the hospitals for the 
insane, that the low percentage of cures is due to the 
fact that but one-half of the patients received had the 
disease for less than one year prior to their admission.] 
In illustration of our theory as to the probable per- 
centage of new cases of insanity, we present the follow- 
ing table, giving the population and number who should 
have become annually insane upon the basis of one to 
one thousand six hundred and ninety, during the 
decade from 1864 to 1875, inclusive : — 



YEARS. 



Population. 



Will become 
insane annu- 
ally on the 
basis of 1 in 
1690. 



RESTORED OR DIED IN FIVE 
HOSPITALS. 



Restored 



Died. 



Total. 



1864, 
1865, 
1866, 
1867, 
1868, 
1869, 
1870, 
I87I, 
1872, 
1873. 



3,138,385 
3,199,270 

3,261,336 
3,324,606 

3>389>!°3 
3,454,852 

3>5 2I >95! 
3,59°, 2 77 
3,659,928 
3,730,93! 



1,857 

x ,893 
1,929 
1,967 
2,005 
2,044 
2,084 
2,124 
2,165 
2,207 



335 
380 
301 

35 1 
395 
339 
347 
381 
3 66 
299 



215 
223 
204 
216 
190 
210 

157 

207 
200 
159 



55o 
603 

505 
567 
585 
549 
5°4 
588 
566 
458 



Number become insane in ten years, 
Add number remaining insane from 
1863, 

Insane population for ten years, . 
Deduct restored and died in hospit- 
als, 

There were not over this number 
living September 30th, 1873, • • 

Leaving as restored or died in 
almshouses and private families, 



20,275 



3,° 6 7 



3,494 



23, 42 

5,47 5 
17,867 

4,442 
13,425 



5,475 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 



411 



As we have already stated, it may be assumed, 
as near an approximation to the truth as can possibly 
be now obtained, that one in three thousand nine 
hundred and eighty-six of the population of Penn- 
sylvania annually becomes insane. In verification of 
this estimate we present the following table, exhibit- 
ing the number of cases developed annually, with 
the aggregate insane population from the year 1864 
to 1873 : — 



YEARS. 



Population. 



Number will 
become in- 
sane annual- 
ly on the ba- 
sis of 1 in 
3986. 



Aggregate in- 
sane popula- 
tion. 



1864, 
1865, 
1866, 
l86 7 , 
1868, 
1869, 
187O, 
I8 7 I, 
l8 7 2, 
1873, 



3»I38>385 

3> I 99> 2 7° 
3.261,336 
3,324,606 

3>389> io 3 
3.454,852 

3.5 2 i.95i 
3.599. 2 77 
3. 6 59.928 

3.73Q.93 1 



Will become insane in ten years, 



787 

802 
818 

834 
850 
867 

884 
901 
918 
93 6 



8,597 



3.854 
3.976 
4,103 
4,234 
4,369 
4,5°9 
4,653 
4,796 

4,949 
5,108 



If to the eight thousand five hundred and ninety- 
seven who, in consonance with our computation, 
became insane in ten years, we add three thousand 
and sixty-seven as the number remaining from the year 
1863, it will give a total of eleven thousand six hun- 
dred and sixty-four as the insane population for ten 
years. 



412 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 



It is important for us now to inquire how many were 
restored, how many died, and the probable number re- 
maining at the end of the decade. The next table will 
show these facts, thus : — 



j ! 

„„ „„ [Aggregate in- 


IN HOSPITALS. 


OUT OF HOSPITALS. 


1 

Total of 


Number 


YEARS. \ sane popu- 
lation. 












remaining 
insane. 


Restored. 


Died. 


Restored. 


Died. 


and died. 


1864, . . 3,854 


299 


J 59 


I20 


I02 


I 

680 


3.J74 


1865, 




3.976 ; 


366 


200 


67 


58 


69I 


3.285 


1866. 




4.103 


381 


207 


62 


53 


703 


3.4oo 


1867, 




4.234 


347 


157 


114 


97 


715 


3.5*9 


1868, 




4.369 


339 


210 


96 


82 


727 


3.642 


1869, 




4.5°9 


395 


190 


84 


7i 


740 


3.769 


1870, 




4.653 


35i 


216 


IO3 


%^> 


758 


3.895 


1871, 




4,796 


301 


204 


140 


120 


765 


4.031 


1872, 




4.949 


380 


223 


94 


80 


777 


4,172 


1873, 




5,108 


335 


215 


130 


no 


790 


4,3 l8 



Here we learn that of the eleven thousand six hun- 
dred and sixty-four insane, four thousand five hundred 
and four — 38.51 per cent. — were restored, and two 
thousand eight hundred and forty-two, or 24.36 per cent, 
died, leaving four thousand three hundred and eighteen 
insane on June 30th, 1873. The number based upon 
our own returns would be four thousand three hundred 
and ninety-two. 

We now inquire whether any additional accommoda- 
tions in the form of hospitals are needed. The increase 
of the t7tsane population of 1873 over that of 1864 
was 36.04 per cent., while the increase of the sane 
population, for the same period, was only 18.88 per 
cent.: — 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 



413 



1864. 



Sane population, . 
Insane population, 



3,138,385 
3, x 74 



Increase. 



'8 7 3- 



18.88 per cent. 3,730,931 
36.04 " 4,318 



Although such is the fact, it would be erroneous to 
infer that all the recent cases are sent to the hospitals 
and the balance of the admissions made up of chronic 
cases. 

The following table will show to what extent recent 
and chronic cases are admitted into the hospitals : — 



YEARS 




Number 
| resident 
in the 
hospitals 


Duration of disease before admission 
of those received during the year. 


Per cent, on 

admissions 

of those 


Annual pop- 
ulation of 




at begin- 
ning of 
year. 


Under 

twelve 

months. 


Above 
twelve 
months. 


Total. 


ease was 

under twelve 

months. 


the hospit- 
als. 


1864, 
1865, 
1866, 
1867, 
1868, 
1869, 
1870, 
1871, 
1872, 
1873, 






! 1,293 
i,346 

1,442 

i,453 
1,616 

i,7i9 
i,835 
1,996 
2,166 

2,274 


360 
412 

473 
489 

514 
503 
537 
578 

59i 

520 


451 
472 

503 
532 
508 
560 
572 
521 
613 

595 


8ll 
884 
976 
1,021 
1,022 
1,063 
1,109 
1,099 
1,204 

I,H5 


44-4 
46.6 

48.5 

47-9 
5°-3 
47-3 
48.4 
52.6 
49.1 
46.6 


2,104 
2,230 
2,418 

2,474 
2,638 
2,782 
2,944 
3,095 
3,37o 
3,389 


Totals, . 




4,977 


5,327 


10,304 


48.3 





Thus we see how our hospitals are rapidly filled with 
unfortunate patients whose duration of disease was of 
one, two, three, four, five years and upwards, who can- 
not but become a lifelong expense to the public. We 
have, for the purpose of this paper, in the above table, 
considered as " recent " cases those whose disease 



414 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 



before admission was under twelve months, compared 
with others existing over twelve months. 

It is but proper to state that many experts in the 
treatment of this disease limit the term of " recent " 
cases to the class in which the malady existed for only 
six months or less. The highest authorities, as Tuke, 
Esquirol, Pinel, and others, agree that the average 
time in which a chance of cure may be expected is less 
than one year, and after the third year the probability 
of cure is at the rate of about one-eighth of one per 
cent. 

We now inquire what has been the result of treat- 
ment in our hospitals ? 







Annual 
population 

of insane 
in the five 

hospitals. 


Per cent, on the whole number treated 
who were discharged as — 


Total 

number 

discharged. 


Number re- 
maining at 




Restored. 


Died. 


Improved 

and 

unimproved. 


the end of 
the year. 


1864, . 

1865, . 

1866, . 

1867, . 

1868, . 
1869, 

1870, . 

1871, . 

1872, . 

1873, . 




2,104 
2,230 
2,418 

2,474 
2,638 
2,782 
2,944 

3.095 
3.37o 
3.389 


14.21 
16.41 
I5-76 
I4.02 
12.85 
I4.20 
II.92 

9.72 
11.28 

9.88 


7-5 6 
8.97 
8.56 

6-35 

9.96 

6.8 3 

7-34 
6.60 
6.62 

6-35 


I4.26 
9.96 
15-59 
I4-3 1 
14.03 
I3.OI 
I2.94 
I3.70 
14.60 
I3.60 


758 
788 

965 
858 
919 

947 
948 

929 
1,096 
1,011 


1.346 
1,442 

1.453 
1,616 

1. 719 
1.835 
1,996 
2,166 

2,274 
2,378 


Totals, . 




i3-°3 


7-3 1 


I3.60 


9,219 





The result of the neglect of early treatment is 
strikingly exhibited in the above table, which shows 
that of the population or number annually treated, an 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 415 

average of only 13.03 were restored, 7.31 per cent, 
died, and 13.60 per cent, discharged as improved and 
unimproved. This population, as we have shown, is 
largely composed of chronic insane ; eighteen to 
twenty per cent, of the annual admissions are re- 
admissions, and in only 48.3 per cent, the disease had 
existed for one year or less. It cannot be doubted 
that much better results under more favorable auspices 
would be obtained. All diseases in their incipient 
stages are readily manageable, and insanity is not an 
exception. 

In the Journal of Insanity, 1870, page 379, it is 
stated, "that when patients are subject to early and 
judicious treatment in the first stages of this disease, 
from eighty to ninety per cent, will recover." We 
have cautiously stated in a previous report that " about 
seventy-five per cent, of recent cases of insanity will 
be cured in the first six or twelve months, if placed 
under proper and skillful treatment in our best hos- 
pitals," while " in poor-houses not more than seven 
per cent, will be cured in twelve months." This, we 
believe, is a fact admitted without a dissenting voice. 
What then would have been the result had there been 
ample accommodation for the reception of all the 
insane for the period named, viz., 1864 to 1873, with a 
compulsory law requiring that these hospitals should be 
used, or equally adequate measures for their restora- 
tion ? Take the case of the 8597, which, as we have 
shown on page 411, is the probable number who 
would have become insane from 1863 to 1874, and 
assume that seventy-five per cent, or 6447 would re- 
cover ; at an expense of three dollars per week for 



41 6 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

twenty-six weeks (the average term of treatment), it 
would amount to .... . $502,866 

The remainder, 2 1 50 incurables, to be pro- 
vided for, during an insane life of eighteen 
years, at a cost of $3 per week, would 
make, ....... 6,037,200 



Total cost of hospital treatment of 

8597 insane persons, . . . $6,540,066 



On the other hand, supposing these 8597 insane 
persons had been disposed of in the poor-houses, 
seven per cent, or 602, would recover in twelve 
months. At the rate of $1.50 each per week, the 
cost of maintenance would be . . $46,952 

Leaving the remainder, 7995, as chronic 
insane, to be supported for say eighteen 
years, at $1.50 per week, which would 
amount to . . . . . . 11,224,980 



Total cost of poor-house or no treat- 
ment, . . . • . $11,271,932 



This shows a clear saving of $4,731,866. Further- 
more, as it costs the community or State to rear one of 
its members from birth, to the time when he earns more 
than he consumes, the sum of $500, then the first cost 
of the seven thousand nine hundred and ninety-five 
chronic insane was $3,997,500, and if we assume that they 
would have earned, if they had continued sane, on an 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 417 

average one hundred dollars per annum in excess of 
what they would have consumed, supposing they 
had lived eighteen years, it would have amounted to 
$14,391,000, which would have added so much to the 
wealth of the State. This constructive loss added to 
the first cost, amounts to $18,288,500. But under 
hospital treatment, supposing that only two thousand 
one hundred and fifty should remain incurable, there 
would be, by the same calculation, a loss or cost to the 
State of $4,945,000, which added to the amount saved 
by hospital treatment makes an aggregate of $9,676,- 
866, or a gain of that much to the wealth and power 
of the community, which has to a large extent (we 
may safely say one-half) been lost to the State for 
want of ample hospital accommodations, where the 
insane could have received adequate and skillful treat- 
ment. For we find that instead of eight thousand five 
hundred and ninety-seven being sent to the hospitals as 
soon as the disease was developed, there were of those 
whose disease had existed for twelve months or less, 
only four thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven 
admitted, and from the crowded condition of the hos- 
pitals, preventing the proper classification of the 
patients, and greatly retarding their treatment, but a 
very small percentage, as we have shown, were cured. 
We urge a very careful attention to and also criticism 
of the above demonstration. 

If this same state of things continues, we may well 
inquire what will be the result in the next decade, or 
from 1874 to 1883 ? 

The following table will show the estimated popula- 
tion, the number that will probably become insane 



4i8 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 



the aggregate insane population, with the number that 
will probably remain in the middle of each year: — 



YEARS. 



Population. 


Number will 
become in- 
sane annually 
on the basis 
of 1 in 3986. 


Aggregate 
insane popu- 
lation. 


3,803,311 


954 


5, 2 7 2 


3,877,095 


972 


5,441 


3>95 2 >3 11 


992 


5,617 


4,028,986 


1,011 


5,798 


4,107,148 


1,030 


5,985 


4,186,827 


1,050 


6,178 


4,268,051 


1,071 


6,37S 


4,35 »85i 


1,092 


6,585 


4,435, 258 


1,113 


6,798 


4,5 2I >3° 2 


i,i34 


7,018 



Estimated 
will remain 
insane in mid- 
dle of each 
year. 



1874 

1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 

1879 
l88o 
l88l 
1882 
1883 



4,469 
4,625 

4,787 

4,955 
5,128 

5,307 
5,493 
5,685 
5,884 
6,090 



Estimated number who will become insane in ten years, . .10,419 
Add number remaining insane in 1873, 4,3 X 8 



Total, 14,737 



The population of the State, and of the insane in the 
above table, are estimated upon the ratio of increase 
as shown by the census of 1870. and exhibits some 
important facts for the consideration of philanthropists. 
Upon the basis that one in three thousand nine 
hundred and eighty-six become insane annually, there 
will be developed in ten years, from 1874 to 1883, ten 
thousand four hundred and nineteen cases of insanity. 
These, added to the number remaining insane from 
1873, viz., four thousand three hundred and eighteen, 
will make a total of fourteen thousand seven hundred 
and thirty-seven. Of this number we estimate that, 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 419 

including the hospital at Danville, which went into 
operation in 1873 (the number restored outside of the 
hospitals being in proportion about the same as in the 
preceding decade), five thousand and sixty-four will be 
restored, and three thousand five hundred and eighty- 
three will die, leaving in the middle of the year 1883 
six thousand and ninety insane persons living. It will 
thus be observed that the insane population would be 
increased from four thousand four hundred and sixty- 
nine, in 1874, to six thousand and ninety at the end of 
the decade, under the system of treatment now in 
operation. 

This growing burden upon the resources of the 
Commonwealth imperatively demands that immediate 
measures be taken to lessen the number of these 
unfortunates. In other words, that the current system 
respecting them be revolutionized by proper legislation. 

It is the interest of the State, as well as the demand 
of humanity, that this should be effected. Dr. Jarvis 
has stated in the fifth report of the Board of Health of 
Massachusetts, page 382: — " If the persons who are 
attacked with this disorder a7'e as promptly cared for as 
others when attacked zvith fever, dysentery, pneumonia, 
eighty or ninety per cent, can be restoi'ed to health and 
usefulness ; but, if neglected, the disease tends rapidly to 
fix itself upon the brain, and becomes more and more 
difficult to remove. If allowed to remain one year, 
the chance of restoration is materially diminished. In 
two years this hope is reduced more than half ; and after 
five years' duration few are restored, and even then it is 
due to some unexpected turn of the disease, rather than 
the result of healing remedies!' 



420 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

It is thus clearly demonstrable that the economic 
interests of the State are largely concerned in uproot- 
ing the past and re-establishing a future for this class 
of dependents, which shall not only restore them to the 
power of self-support and family support, but also 
shall gladden many lives upon which gloom and misery 
now perpetually lower and depress. It is a most dis- 
couraging task to undertake the proposed revolution. 
We estimate that there are now in this Common- 
wealth four thousand four hundred and sixty-nine 
insane persons, and that of these three thousand five 
hundred and seventy-six are incurable. The dis- 
couragement which is felt in contemplating such a 
state of things is simply overwhelming. It exceeds 
even that which one feels in regarding the increase of 
the criminal or the pauper class ; and we are less in- 
sensible to it only because the former are regarded as 
further beyond the pale of human consideration than 
"the selected few who are their keepers. The public 
interest and the active public sympathy decline, be- 
cause of the false notion which exists, that these 
stricken members of the community are doomed to 
desertion by the " mysterious " malady which has 
overpowered and obscured their reason, while it hap- 
pens that every day we are enjoying domestic comfort, 
sharing business enterprises, or taking counsel with 
many, who have at some time been members of the 
very class who, by a false public impression, become 
as estranged from public care and thought as are the 
mummies in the Egyptian catacombs. 

Having proved conclusively, as we think, that some 
other method than that heretofore used by the State 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 42 1 

must be tried (unless we accept the alternative, which 
plainly confronts us, of a great and increasing aggre- 
gate of unrelieved suffering and disease, and a corres- 
ponding expenditure of public funds for the mainte- 
nance of their victims), we turn to the suggestion of a 
plan by which we believe the remedy may be applied 
with benefit to the treasury of the people, as well as to 
the stricken and helpless beings whose sad woes ap- 
peal to every heart, not only for sympathy, but for sure 
and permanent relief. 

Past experience has demonstrated that the legisla- 
ture will not build costly hospitals fast enough to 
receive the gathering increase of the insane, and espe- 
cially for the reception of the population of the various 
poor-houses, who are so imperfectly cared for in the 
best conditions of such houses of detention. Outlays 
for these structures have come to be of magnificent 
proportions; so much so, that the legislature of 1872 
felt constrained, by economical considerations, to re- 
fuse, for that year, all pecuniary aid towards the com- 
pletion of the Danville Hospital, although the needs of 
the insane for hospital accommodation were sore and 
pressing. 

This is not surprising when we discover that the cost 
of such infirmaries for the sick poor are so enormous, 
and the length of time required for their construction 
so great. Patience becomes exhausted, and liberality 
receives a natural check. 

But if the legislature becomes informed of the real 
condition of its helpless wards, by frank and honest 
statement concerning them ; if, knowing their needs, it 
is shown a reasonable plan for their relief, quick in 



42 2 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

application and attainable without extravagance, the 
question of its readiness to accept and carry out such 
a measure without delay cannot, we think, be doubted. 

Such a scheme we are now prepared to recommend, 
after full deliberation. It consists in the establishment, 
on the grounds of each of the State hospitals for the 
insane, detached buildings, near enough to the main 
institutions for convenience, for the accommodation of 
say two hundred of each sex of the chronic, and for the 
most part quiet, patients, whose number is always 
largely in excess in all of our hospitals. 

These houses can be built substantially, and in per- 
fect adaptation to their uses (and in accord, also, if 
necessary, with the architectural character of the main 
building), for $500 per patient, including furniture and 
every appliance and appurtenance demanded for their 
proper administration. They might consist of a single 
structure for each department, to accommodate two 
hundred patients, or, as in the case of the Willard 
Asylum for the Insane, in the State of New York, of 
groups of buildings for each department, with accom- 
modations for fifty patients each ; which is preferred by 
the managers of that institution and its most able and 
efficient medical superintendent, Dr. John B. Chapin. 
These extensions would be, of course, under the con- 
trolling authority of the physician-in-chief, but they 
would be directly managed by a superintendent and 
matron, and ordinarily visited by an assistant physician 
of the institution. The cost of "living" accommoda- 
tions for these four hundred patients by our proposed 
plan would be $200,000. The average estimated cost 
of the Danville Hospital, by builders, was $1, 200,000, 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 423 

with the originally intended provision for five hundred 
inmates, and without furniture. Its actual cost and its 
ultimate extent cannot be accurately estimated. 

It will not be difficult, moreover, to compute the sav- 
ing in the expense of maintenance and treatment of 
the inmates under the proposed management. The 
present weekly cost, as stated in the reports of the 
medical superintendents, is about four dollars and 
eighty-five cents per caput. We estimate the cost, 
under the system we now respectfully submit to your 
honorable bodies, not to exceed three dollars and fifty 
cents per caput. As to the ability of the chief to con- 
duct an institution of such capacity as is herein indi- 
cated, we need only point to the hospital for the insane 
connected with the Philadelphia almshouse, in which 
are maintained over eleven hundred patients : as large 
a proportion of the curable class as in the State hos- 
pital, and with a want of almost every desirable feature 
for convenient or successful administration. 

We quote here some passages from the last report 
of the Willard Asylum for the Insane, bearing most 
pertinently upon this very important question : — 

"The number of insane persons in the asylum on 
the twentieth day of November, 1874, was nine hun- 
dred. The number of patients occupying single rooms 
was two hundred and ten ; the remainder occupied 
associated dormitories. No casualty occurred during 
the night, and in my observation injuries are inflicted 
by the insane more frequently in the day-time. We 
record the experience of another year in confirmation 
of the opinion entertained that a large proportion of 
the chronic insane may be cared for in this manner 



424 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

without disturbance or danger to each other: the noise 
and turbulence of the insane being due principally to 
the presence of acute cases. We have passed through 
the wards, and about the buildings at night, without 
hearing more than one or two voices, and frequently 
entire quiet prevails. 

"A number of cases have been brought here during 
the year, and forever released from the restraint of 
chains and noisome cells. A single case, that of an 
unknown foreigner, deserves a passing mention from 
the fact that he bears the marks of former respect- 
ability and intelligence, who was released from the 
heavy chains which he had worn about his legs for a 
period of nineteen years — a fate which rarely falls to 
the lot of the most hardened felons in countries less 
civilized than ours. Since the admission of this person 
he has occupied a room with others, and is harmless. 
We could record many similar cases, and fear that 
other instances exist in the State. We have specu- 
lated upon the causes which have led to the imposition 
of such painful restraint upon these wretched persons 
over long periods, and infer it has, perhaps, followed a 
single outbreak of maniacal violence, which is handed 
down among the traditions of the establishment and 
neighborhood to excite an apprehension of repetition. 
These facts should be commended to journalists, and 
engage the attention of others who are in the habit of 
arousing the public mind to the abuses and wrongs of 
the insane. 

" Dr. Hoyt, secretary of the State Board of Public 
Charities, informs me, in a recent letter, that he 'found 
two hundred and thirteen insane locked in cells or 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 425 

chained (in an insane population of one thousand five 
hundred and twenty-eight) in the county poor-houses, 
when visited by me (him) in 1868. Most of these, it 
was said, had been so restrained for a long time, and 
many of them for several years. They were generally 
filthy, violent, and destructive, and several were entirely 
nude.' 

"'The number of insane at present in the county 
poor-houses is nearly as large as in 1868, but they are 
in a much better condition. During the present year 
I have visited about forty of these institutions. I 
found several insane in some form of restraint, but 
observed none in chains, and but few locked in cells.' 

" ' I attribute this improvement in the condition of the 
insane under local care, to the removal of the more 
violent and disturbed cases to the Willard Asylum. 
There is still urgent need for more accommodation for 
the chronic insane.' 

" We are gratified to be able to present this official 
statement, indicative of an improved public sentiment 
toward this unfortunate class. We trust it can soon 
be announced that this practice of caring for the insane 
has been effectually abolished throughout the State. 

" One very serious objection heretofore made against 
our public buildings for charitable purposes has been 
their cost, hence the satisfaction we feel in presenting 
the actual facts and successful operations of these less 
expensive, yet substantial and comfortable, buildings 
for the care of the insane. Their reasonable cost ob- 
viates the objection, for, when good homes can be 
provided for the pauper insane of the State, at $500 
per capita, who will complain or object? And when 



426 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

to this is added their support in comfort and safety, at 
an actual cost of three dollars per week, who will not 
commend the system which has led to such a result, 
and rejoice in a charity which has rescued so many 
from the ill-provided poor-houses of the State ? One 
great object aimed at by the establishment of this 
asylum, and by connecting with it the cottage system 
of buildings, was to reduce the expense both of build- 
ing and care. The result has fully met our expecta- 
tions, and has, we think, assured the complete success 
of the great and humane enterprise of providing better 
homes for the chronic pauper insane than the poor- 
houses and the jails of the counties where necessity 
had compelled their confinement. 

" By centralizing at the main asylum the general 
management, and by doing at the same place the 
baking and laundry-work for all the buildings, much 
expense is avoided, and more vigorous supervision and 
accountability secured. To this fact we attribute much 
of the success here, and upon it we base our con- 
fident expectations for the future, that we can extend 
without the heavy outlays for additional offices and for 
laundry and other purposes. ' The matter is reduced 
down to the simple cost of building, heating, and 
furnishing, and these, as has been demonstrated, may 
be brought to $500 per patient hereafter. We dwell 
upon this subject, because, in our judgment, it affords 
the real solution of the great question, what can be 
done with this most helpless and unfortunate class of 
our people ? We assume that it is the duty of the 
State to look after, protect, provide for, and secure this 
class. They are homeless, friendless, irresponsible, 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 427 

dangerous, incapable of self-protection, and yet are 
citizens, part and parcel of the body politic ; assuredly 
they are, and should be wards of the State. In the 
establishment of this asylum, the State has assumed to 
provide them a home, and has made provision for their 
proper care. It is quite evident that this humane 
purpose would have been greatly retarded, if not en- 
tirely defeated, without devising less expensive build- 
ings than had heretofore been erected for the care of 
the insane. The class to be received here being 
chronic, can be provided for in cheaper buildings, with 
less expense than more recent and excited cases. 
Keeping these ends in view, we have proceeded with 
our system, planned our buildings, and now propose 
to extend on a scale that will give more room and 
better accommodations for less money than was sup- 
posed by many to be possible. 

" In submitting to the legislature the result of an- 
other year's observation and experience in the man- 
agement of this asylum, we would say we are more 
and more confirmed in our estimate of its importance 
and its peculiar adaptation to its purpose and aims. 
It was a great problem, ' How can the chronic insane 
be cared for ?' and, most of all, how can this helpless, 
hopeless class, who are literally homeless, and to a large 
extent friendless and reduced to pauperism, be pro- 
vided for? This question, involving so largely a just 
benevolence and becoming humanity, this institution is 
surely and wisely solving. Necessity compelled the 
use of the jail and the poor-houses ; but neither jail 
nor poor-house is or can be made fit or proper 
places for insane people. In them, in addition to the 



428 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

mental disturbance, of necessity was added physical 
restraint and suffering. The safety of others de- 
manded chains, shackles, and confinement. The want 
of convenience forced the shameful herding together 
of the sexes, when the animal passions had survived 
the loss of mental control. To remedy these great 
and crying evils this asylum was instituted, and for 
four years has been working its great, humane, Chris- 
tian purpose. It has unshackled from the limbs of 
many of both sexes chains that long had bound them. 
It has taken from damp, cold, loathsome cells many 
more who had hardly seen the light of day for years. 
It has furnished to such, and hundreds of old, infirm, 
hopelessly insane, and demented ones, a good, warm, 
comfortable, and safe home. To do all this, it has bur- 
dened no one to any great extent. In addition, it has 
demonstrated that the great problem is easy of solu- 
tion, and hence the earnestness with which we urge 
this subject so persistently upon your attention. We 
certainly can so extend the substantial, cheap buildings 
here on lands belonging to the State as to relieve 
all the poor-houses of the State from the presence of 
the insane now therein, or who will be liable hereafter 
to be sent there. Aside from the great good to the 
unfortunate insane, this result would greatly add to 
the efficiency and comfort of the almshouses for their 
legitimate work. We are assured that the work of this 
asylum has greatly improved many of the almshouses 
from which the insane have been removed. In every 
aspect in which the question has been viewed, the de- 
mand comes with constant and increasing force to go 
on until all the pauper insane are provided for outside 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 429 

of jails and poor-houses; to go on until all of this 
helpless, pitiable class are provided with safe and be- 
coming homes, here or elsewhere, by the State." 

It has been made perfectly clear by the facts we have 
set forth, by the authorities of the highest medical 
character which we have cited, by the gathered results 
of our own painful experience, and by the like experi- 
ence of other similar commissions, that poor-houses 
are not proper places for the reception, care, or treat- 
ment of the insane. It is adverse not only to the 
interests of humanity, but to reason and common 
sense. The riches of benevolence are squandered 
thereby, as well as the substantial and tangible wealth 
of the community. We think that we have demon- 
strated this problem clearly and accurately to every 
unprejudiced, unselfish, thinking mind. We submit, 
then, that it is time at least to begin to close up this 
inhuman and destructive system. We have presented 
a plan which will effect this object, and which, we be- 
lieve, will in time reverse the respective ratios of the 
curable and incurable insane within our State. If the 
cost of maintenance at our State hospitals for the in- 
sane is brought down to three dollars and fifteen cents, 
as at the Willard Institution, or rather to three dollars 
and fifty cents, per week per inmate, as at the Massa- 
chusetts State Hospital at Northampton, under the 
medical direction of Dr. Pliny Earle (a synopsis of 
whose very definite and detailed account of the system 
and its results is hereto appended), as we think it 
should be, and, as we believe, the worthy superintend- 
ents of our hospitals will succesfully endeavor to make 
it, the State can afford to allow the same ratio of 



43° CARE OF THE INSANE. 

reduction on the diminished, as she does upon the pres- 
ent cost, in the admissions of the indigent insane from 
the county authorities ; which would remove the only 
existing obstruction to the reception of this class into 
the State hospitals. The cost, then, to the counties, 
would not exceed two dollars and fifty cents per week 
for each patient; and no county could fairly claim that 
it was more economical to keep her insane poor at 
home. Even now, when the interest upon property, 
the cost of wear and tear, and the proper proportion 
of the expense of supervision are charged, the real 
cost of each inmate of the insane department of an 
almshouse cannot be less and is often more than the 
sum we have suggested as the weekly charge by the 
State hospitals. And when we consider how insuffi- 
cient in all respects is the almshouse treatment, and 
how the public mind demands and will further demand 
a higher standard and more effective system of care 
and treatment in these county establishments, if they 
continue to receive this class of the sick poor, it cannot 
be questioned that the pecuniary interest of the coun- 
ties will be served by remitting entirely to the care of 
the State all of their insane who are not provided for 
in private hospitals. And we trust that the State will 
make provision to receive them, as she should do, for 
every reason that humanity and even self-interest can 
suggest. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 43 1 

SYNOPSIS OF REPORT FROM DR. PLINY EARLE, OF THE 
MASSACHUSETTS STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE AT 
NORTHAMPTON. 

Total cost of hospital to the State was $373,000, of 
which sum $19,000 was for boilers, alterations in heat- 
ing, new water-tanks, &c, several years after the hos- 
pital was opened. Deducting this sum from the 
$373,000, leaves the original cost to the State as 
$354,000. 

From the year 1861 the entire appropriations which 
have been made to the hospital by the State amount 
to only $5000, which sum is included in the $19,000 
previously mentioned. 

As an offset to the $5000, the hospital has paid for 
additional land to the amount of $7425. The State 
has thus been overpaid for its bonus the sum of $2425. 

The amount paid by the hospital for repairs and im- 
provements during the nine years, from September, 
1865, to 1874, is $95,318.91. The cash assets now on 
hand exceed the amount in 1865 by $18,526.43. The 
value of purchased provisions and supplies, including 
fuel and stored clothing on hand and paid for, is esti- 
mated at $12,381.98 increase over the amount on hand 
in 1865. The household furniture is estimated at least 
$8000 greater than in 1865. These various sums to- 
gether make the total of $136,652.32 as the amount of 
debit of the State to the hospital. 

The necessary current repairs of the buildings are 
estimated at $3000, which, for nine years, would make 
$27,000; deducting this sum from the $136,652.32, 
there is a remainder of $109,652.32 as being the 



43 2 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

amount which the hospital has itself expended for 
necessaries, which are usually paid for by direct ap- 
propriation from the public treasury. 

These expenditures have been made from revenue 
derived from patients. We will take, for example, one 
year, as follows: — The weekly average number of 
patients for the year ending September 30th, 1874, 
was, of State paupers, 284 T 4 A; town paupers, io2 T 8 /o; 
private patients, 82 T fo-; total, 469 T 4 o 2 o- Their cost of 
maintenance was, for State paupers, three dollars and 
fifty cents per week for full support, including clothing; 
for town paupers, three dollars and fifty cents per 
week, exclusive of clothing ; for private patients, at 
various prices, none over ten dollars per week, and 
averaging only five dollars and forty-three cents per 
week for each. Such were the sources of income for 
the year. The expenditures for the same period were 
as follows: — Expenses of repairs and improvements, 
$10,720.13; increase of cash assets during the year, 
$1,182.01 ; increase of purchased and paid for supplies, 
$2,224.66; an orchard of about fifteen acres of land, 
$4000. Total of self-betterments of the hospital dur- 
ing the year, $18,126.80. 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 

THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA ADOPTS THE PRIN- 
CIPLE OF PROVIDING HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATIONS FOR 
ALL HER INSANE POOR, RECOGNIZING THEM AS THE 
WARDS OF THE STATE. 

This was one of my earliest thoughts and wishes in 
regard to the care of the insane ; and the most per- 
sistent efforts of the administration of the Board of 
Public Charities were made to secure its adoption and 
execution. 

As a preliminary step in this direction, the following 
action was taken by the board in relation to the insane 
department of the Philadelphia almshouse, as reported 
in 1870 to the legislature: — 

At a stated meeting of the Board of Public Charities, 
held at the capitol on June 1st, 1870, Mr. Harrison 
offered the following preamble and resolution, which 
were unanimously adopted : — 

Whereas, The insufficient and unsuitable accommo- 
dations for the inmates of the department for the 
insane of the Philadelphia almshouse, render it impos- 
sible not only to employ proper remedial measures for 
their recovery, but even to secure their personal com- 
fort and safety ; therefore, 

Resolved, That this board respectfully request the 
Guardians of the Poor of Philadelphia County to take 
early action on this subject, and to adopt and persevere 
in the most effective measures to have these accommo- 
dations enlarged and improved. 

(433) 



434 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

Mr. Clymer offered the following resolution, which 
was adopted : — 

Resolved, That the committee of this board for the 
district, in conjunction with the general agent, be in- 
structed to present the above preamble and resolution 
to the proper authorities, both of the almshouse and 
the city of Philadelphia, and to express the views of the 
Board of Public Charities on this subject. 

Stated Meeting, September 7th, 1870. 

Mr. Harrison, on behalf of the committee on the 
Philadelphia almshouse, made a report and read ex- 
tracts from several newspapers, expressing their appro- 
bation of the action of the Board of Public Charities 
in reference to the Philadelphia almshouse. 

Report. 

The committee appointed to communicate with the 
proper authorities in reference to the crowded condi- 
tion of the insane department of the Philadelphia 
almshouse, respectfully report — 

That shortly after the adjournment of the board, we 
presented the resolutions of the board on this subject 
to the Guardians of the Poor and the Councils of the 
City of Philadelphia, accompanied by a communication 
to Councils, hereto annexed, intended to impress them 
with the urgent necessity of affording immediate relief 
to the inmates of the above institution ; that these 
papers having been appropriately referred, conferences 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 435 

were held with the committees, and other members of 
Councils ; that a plan was devised to extend the accom- 
modations for the insane, in the simplest and least ex- 
pensive way that would secure proper wards for 
remedial treatment ; that the information obtained was 
imparted to Councils, with a request for an application 
of $70,000, the sum needed to accomplish the work, 
which was granted by both branches, by a unanimous 
vote. Full plans and specifications have been prepared, 
after consultation with expert physicians, and a con- 
tract awarded, and preparation made for beginning the 
work. 

The following communication was addressed to the 
Select and Common Councils of the City of Philadel- 
phia : — 

Gentlemen : — The undersigned, who have been in- 
trusted with the duty of presenting to the authorities 
of the city of Philadelphia the accompanying preamble 
and resolutions of the Board of Public Charities, re- 
spectfully beg leave to state that we have endeavored 
to make ourselves thoroughly familiar with the condi- 
tion of the insane department of the Philadelphia 
almshouse ; and that we have done so, after large 
observation of similar institutions in various parts of 
the State. That while we observe, with unqualified 
satisfaction, that this institution is under the superin- 
tendence of an able and faithful physician, — an advan- 
tage too seldom enjoyed by county asylums, — we are 
constrained to recognize the painful fact that the con- 
tracted accommodations for so large a population, and 
the almost entire absence of needful resources for the 
application of scientific remedies, render a physician's 



43 ^ CARE OF THE INSANE. 

skill almost useless, unless to repair the bodily harm 
which the inmates suffer, either from self-infliction or 
the violence of their companions, excited to frenzy by 
a mutually reacting irritation, which is the outgrowth 
alone of their crowded and unclassified condition. We 
are well aware that this communication would be an 
appropriate one to the board of guardians, and we 
should not fulfill our duty without urging upon them 
the necessity of instant attention to the subject ; but, as 
legislation by yourselves is needed to enable that board 
to reach any practical result, we address you, also, as 
the more important authority in the premises. 

We might easily set forth to you the clear right of 
this dependent and afflicted class of our citizens, not 
only on the ground of humanity, but of law and justice, 
to liberal care and guardianship from the city of Phila- 
delphia. We might expose in detail their condition of 
constant retrogression, instead of advance, in mental 
and physical health ; we might give our views as to 
what extension is needed to secure effectually the per- 
sonal safety of the inmates, or, what is better, so to 
classify them as to give them the advantages of hos- 
pital treatment ; but we forbear to occupy your atten- 
tion at this time, further than to say, in behalf of the 
Board of Public Charities, that we should deprecate 
any reliance upon the prospective relief to this depart- 
ment of the almshouse, which may be anticipated from 
the establishment of a house of correction ;* but that, 
with our present convictions, we have confidence only 

* The thought was encouraged by some of the officials of the city government, 
that the contemplated house of correction would so relieve the almshouse as to 
afford the needed room for the insane inmates. 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 437 

in the prompt enlargement of the department for the 
insane, upon the premises where it is now located. 

Geo. L. Harrison, 

HlESTER CLYMER, 

Committee. 

WlLMER WoRTHINGTON, 

Secretary and General Agent. 

Stated Meeting, December 7™, 1870. 

Mr. Harrison reported further proceedings in refer- 
ence to the insane department of the Philadelphia 
almshouse. 

The following communication was addressed to the 
Councils of Philadelphia on October Jist: — 

Gentlemen : — The undersigned, members of the 
Board of Public Chanties, who have especial super- 
vision of the institutions in that district of the State 
in which Philadelphia is located, beg leave to make the 
following statement to your honorable bodies : — We 
look back with the most grateful feelings at your recent 
action in behalf of the insane department of the alms- 
house, and anticipate with confident hope that the 
condition of its inmates will be benefited to their own 
great improvement and the consequent credit and 
economic advantage of the city ; but in order to realize 
full success, we earnestly ask your attention to a few 
points bearing most influentially upon the manage- 
ment of that institution. We take it for eranted that 
suitable provision will be made for heating, lighting, 
ventilating, &c. the projected extension, which will be 



43$ CARE OF THE INSANE. 

moderate in cost, but which should be obviously 
arranged for now, to prevent damage to the buildings 
and to save expense from its introduction after they 
are completed. 

Another important consideration is the compensa- 
tion of the medical superintendent, and the character 
and qualifications of his , assistants. It is entirely un- 
deniable that a servant, conscious of unfair treatment, 
whether as to recompense or otherwise, is unable to 
meet fully the requisitions of his service, whatever may 
be the degree of his conscientiousness ; and, for this 
reason, we fear that, should it become certain that the 
present appropriation for salary of that officer at our 
almshouse will not be considerably increased, the deep 
interest which is now manifested must necessarily de- 
cline ; and it is quite sure that no suitable successor 
can be engaged on such terms. We feel confident 
that the physician of seven hundred and fifty insane in- 
mates, with a salary of $1350 a year and perquisites of 
residence and vegetables, which would not increase this 
sum by $150, cannot, however devoted to his work, 
enjoy that satisfaction and that freedom from care for 
his domestic interests, which are essential to his full 
efficiency. We hope, therefore, that in the interests of 
the institution and the public, as also in justice to who- 
ever may be the incumbent of that office, a more 
reasonable salary will be appropriated. We beg, in 
this relation, to adduce a few examples of the salaries 
paid to the physicians of similar institutions. At 
Colney Hatch, England, John Welsh writes that the 
" physicians receive equal to $3000 in gold, with house, 
fuel, light, butter, milk, and vegetables." 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 439 

At the New York State Lunatic Asylum, with six 
hundred inmates, the appropriations for 1869 were 
" $10,000 for officers;" for "attendants, engineer, 
apothecary, butcher, tailor, farmer, bookkeeper, clerk, 
&c, $37,983.49." The physician has three assistants. 
At the hospital for the insane at Flatbush, Long Island, 
the salary is $2000, with residence and full support, 
including the convenience of a horse and carriage. 
The number of inmates there is six hundred. There 
are two assistants at $800 each. At the institution on 
Blackwell's Island, New York City, the salary is $2500, 
with dwelling apartments commodious and convenient, 
and partial subsistence. There are three assistants, the 
salary of the first being $1000. In our own State, Dr. 
Reed, of Dixmont, near Pittsburg, receives $3000, with 
dwelling and subsistence. He has four hundred 
patients, with, at present, one assistant at $900 salary, 
another being promised. Dr. Curwen, of the Harris- 
burg institution, receives $2500, with two assistants 
at $800 each ; also, commodious apartments in the 
institution, subsistence, and other liberal provision. 
Number of inmates, four hundred. We are not aware 
of any similar institution of any magnitude where the 
compensation is so inadequate as at our own, and 
where there is no paid assistant. We therefore re- 
spectfully suggest that the salary of the medical super- 
intendent of the insane department of the almshouse 
be increased ; that a suitable dwelling-place for his 
family be provided, and that he be furnished with at 
least one paid assistant ; for we must not fail to bear 
in mind that an insane asylum is not merely a place of 
detention, requiring only men of bone and muscle as 



440 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

"keepers," but a hospital, where scientific and experi- 
enced skill is required, with anxious care by night as 
well as day, for remedial treatment. In this connection 
we would also suggest that a moderate appropriation 
be made for the employment of paid attendants, the 
paupers who are detailed for this work being wholly 
unfit, and generally, from want of feeling and want of 
principle, practising cruelty or neglect, subversive of 
the first essentials towards relief or cure of this peculiar 
malady. With these improvements in the affairs of 
the almshouse asylum of this city, we are confident that, 
when the extension is completed, so evident an ameli- 
oration of the condition of that afflicted class of our 
citizens will be apparent, and so evident an advantage 
to the community from the speedy restoration of many 
of the inmates, as will lead us all to rejoice in the 
benevolent liberality which Councils have manifested in 

their behalf. 

Geo. L. Harrison, 

HlESTER CLYMER, 

Committee. 

WlLMER WORTHINGTON, 

Secretary and General Agent. 

This communication was referred to the Finance 
Committee of Councils, who reported favorably on its 
recommendations, and, thereupon, Councils made the 
requisite appropriations to carry them out. 

Thus was taken up the best, and at the same time 
the most conspicuous example of an insane depart- 
ment in an almshouse with medical superintendence, 
but without suitable hospital accommodations for either 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 441 

sex. The appeal prepared by me, as chairman of the 
committee on this subject, was recognized by Councils, 
the grant was made without dissent ; and extensions of 
the male and female departments were built as sug- 
gested. For the first time, up to this date, was full 
opportunity given, in a county almshouse, to the im- 
poverished and helpless insane to enjoy the benefits 
which are derived from hospital accommodations, and 
hospital care and supervision. 

Subsequently, in accordance with the further sug- 
gestions made in a second appeal to the Councils of 
Philadelphia, the medical superintendent was more 
adequately compensated, a paid assistant was given 
him, better nourishment was allowed to the patients, 
and the plan of ''working the department in the 
cheapest way " — not the most economical — was aban- 
doned. The efforts in this first movement were thus 
crowned with success ; and while communicating with 
many members of Councils in relation to the matter, 
the expectation was announced that the State herself 
would at length assume the obligation and adopt the 
policy of providing hospital care and maintenance for 
the insane poor of Philadelphia, as well as of the rest 
of the Commonwealth ; thus making her policy, in this 
regard, uniform and universal. The belief further 
was expressed that she would be prepared for the 
recognition of this humane and generous duty within 
the period of five years ; and, for this end, incessant 
efforts were put forth to inform the intelligence and 
stir up the humanity of leading citizens to aid and 
sustain the board in the accomplishment of this great 
and cherished object. 



44 2 CARE OF THE INSANE. 

The day after my report to the board in the Phila- 
delphia case, recited above, the following record is 
made of its proceedings : — 

Meeting held" at Harrisburg, December 8th, 1870. 

Mr. Harrison offered the following resolutions, which 
were adopted : — 

Resolved, That the Board of Public Charities, having 
witnessed the evils which result from the connection of 
insane asylums with almshouses, and believing that a 
wrong is done to the insane by classing them with 
paupers, hindering the public from estimating aright 
their claims to sympathy and remedial treatment, dis- 
approve of such an alliance, and believe that the best 
interests of this afflicted class of her people, and the 
duty of the State, concur in the establishment by the 
State, within a reasonable time, of sufficient accommo- 
dations for the maintenance and treatment of all the 
insane who may not be cared for in private hospitals. 

Resolved, That, in the judgment of the board, all 
superintendents of hospitals for the insane should" be 
members of the medical profession. 

The effort thus inaugurated in 1870 being earn- 
estly followed up from year to year, — as the preceding 
pages will show, — resulted, in the winter of 1875, in 
my framing a bill for carrying into effect the desired 
object. Being unable to remain in Harrisburg during 
that session of the legislature, the measure, though 
reported to that body, was not pressed for enactment ; 
but the legislature of 1876 passed the bill, providing 



CARE OF THE INSANE. 443 

for the purchase of two hundred acres of ground and 
the erection thereon of a State hospital for the accom- 
modation of the insane poor of Philadelphia and some 
contiguous counties. 

Though deeply regretting that the pressure of other 
engagements prevented me from accepting the place 
of chairman of the commission for carrying this act 
into effect, — to which I was appointed by the Governor 
of the State, — I close this little volume with the expres- 
sion of my hearty joy and thanksgiving that the erec- 
tion of this hospital, with the completion of others 
now being built, will enable the State to perform her 
recognized duty of supplying hospital accommodations 
for all the insane poor within her bounds ; so that 
none need hereafter be left in prisons or in alms- 
houses. The Harrisburg hospital will provide for the 
central portions of the State; the hospital at Dixmont 
for the south-western part ; that at Warren, when com- 
pleted according to its plans, will amply suffice, for 
many years to come, for the north-west ; the hospital 
at Danville, when finished in like manner, will furnish 
abundant accommodation for the north-eastern por- 
tion ; and, finally, the South-eastern Hospital, for the 
building of which the whole sum needed has been 
appropriated by the legislature, will be made to pro- 
vide for Philadelphia and the adjoining counties, 
namely, for that district of the State which is desig- 
nated by its title. 

Thus will a great sum of money have been ex- 
pended; but thus, also, will one of the most imperative 
duties of the Commonwealth have been fulfilled. 



INDEX. 



Absentees from public schools, 16. 
Act of 1861, repeal suggested, 378. 

Ancient torture of prisoners, 90; abolition of vindictive punishments, 112. 
Aberdeen, Scotland, juvenile delinquents in, 83. 
Apathy of the public respecting insane poor, 280. 
Agricultural pursuits a cause of insanity, 401. 
Annual cost of criminals, 86. 

Almshouses — Not proper insane hospitals, 266, 274 ; cases of cruelty to insane in, 
385, 390- 

Board of Public Charities, 107 ; aims of, 1 18; reports of, 266. 
Benevolence in punishment and in provision for the poor, 100-104. 
Brewster, Hon. F. Carroll, on Pennsylvania laws on insane, 330. 

Capital punishment, 116. 

Carpenter, Miss Mary, letter from, 52, 55. 

Cities, neglected children in, I, 5; criminal classes, 209; relations to state, 
18, 70. 

Charitable institutions, State aid to private, 43, 47, 48. 

Christianity and civilization, influence on convicts, 89, 149. 

Causes of insanity — Agricultural pursuits, 401 ; physical and hereditary, 405. 

Children — Neglected, pauper, and vicious, 4, 5, 16, 76, 88; State aid to, 49; 
industrial schools in England, 50, 53; employed in factories, 17, 19; out- 
side the range of common schools, 46; vagrant, 37, 44. 

Classification of prisoners, 165, 173; in England, 168. 

Commitment of insane, 253; legislation needed, 255. 

Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania — Retrogressive action of, 42; me- 
morial to, 56, 75. 

Commutation of sentences on reformation, 178, 187. 

Compulsory education, 1,36; in other countries, 8, 12,31; in various States, 
13,15; recent legislation, 31, 36; cost of, 22; objections to considered, 20; 
not prejudicial to liberty of conscience, 25 ; general law proposed, 30; New 
England law of 1642, 31. 

Compensation of medical superintendents, adequate, 441. 

(445) 



44 6 INDEX. 

Convicts — Annual cost of, 55, 86; reformation of, 92; discharged, 191 ; instruc- 
tion to, 147, 157 ; kind treatment of, 158, 165 ; proper classification of, 165, 
173; not discharged unreformed, 153; statistics of Pennsylvania, 242; 
labor of, 124, 147. 

Criminals — Illiterate, 78; number of, 241 ; reform of, 1 19; public apathy 
respecting, 225 ; suggestions, 209. 

Criminal insane, 286, 288, 379; Pennsylvania laws, 303, 311, 330; act of 1861, 
311; memorial to legislature in behalf of, 318, 325, 345; legislation in 
various States, 335, 345 ; opinion of convention of medical superintendents, 
347, 358 ; provision for, 367 ; no punitive treatment, 367 ; suggestions, 345, 

374- 
Crime allied to ignorance, 37 ; prevention of, 105; prison economy, 105, 119. 
Contractors for convict labor, 138. 
Curable insane, 268, 403; large percentage of, 259, 415, 419; importance of 

early and proper treatment, 415, 419; cure retarded in poor-houses, 415. 
Crofton, Sir William — Graded prisons, 164, 231. 
Common schools need some supplement, 59. 

Dangerous classes, 182, 232. 

Duty of the State to neglected children, 7 ; in general education, 41 ; to insane 
poor, 272 378 ; to insane criminals, 290. 

Destitute and neglected children, 37, 44. 

Dietary arrangements in prisons, 98. 

Discharge of convicts on reformation, 178; discharging-houses, 187-190 ; pro- 
vision for, 191-196, 216; discharge of untried prisoners, 206; statistics, 206. 

Dix, Miss — Efforts in behalf of insane poor, 273, 282. 

Economy — Public, in State provision for neglected children, 55, 78, 86; for in- 
sane, 259, 270, 406. 
Education — Compulsory, 1-37 ; moral and religious, 10, 25. 
Europe — Results of prison reform, 239; English industrial schools, 54. 
Escaped prisoners, 189. 
Earle, Dr. Pliny — Report of, 431. 
Early efforts of Board of Public Charities, for insane, 433. 

Family — The type of the State, 101 ; of the convict should share products of his 

labor, 216, 235. 
Female convicts, 123, 212. 

Gradation — Of prisons, 231 ; of penalties, 115, 182. 
" Godless schools " an unjust epithet, 21, 26. 

Habeas wpiis peculiar to England and United States, 92. 

Humane treatment — Of convicts, 92, 106, 112, 119, 158-165, 229; of insane 

criminals, 290. 
Hospitals for insane in Pennsylvania, 370, 409, 422, 443. 



INDEX. 447 

/ 

Ignorance and crime inseparable, 6. 

Illiterates — In United States, 2 ; Pennsylvania, 3, 57 ; Philadelphia, 81 ; Southern 
States, 78 ; New York, 79 ; criminals, 37 ; children, 43 ; paupers, 39. 

Insanity — A disease, not a crime, 405; character of, 247, 261; causes of, 401, 
405, 442. 

Insane — Care of the, 248; in poor-houses, 243, 247; in ancient Greece and 
Egypt, 251 ; experienced attendants for, 252; number of, 263; dan- 
gerous, mischievous, dependent, 264, 322; harmless, 322; memorials 
respecting, to Board of Public Charities, 326 ; should not be in prisons or 
poor-houses, 370; a plea for the insane, 261,381; poor in Pennsylvania 
hospitals and poor-houses, 398; probable number of new cases, 410 ; sta- 
tistics, 411,418; chronic poor, 427; suggestions for enlarged provision for, 

422,433- 

Insane criminals — In prisons, 267, 286, 288 ; in State penitentiaries, 294, 295, 346 ; 
29 1 * 3°3> 3"> 3 l8 > 3 2 4; legislation in various States, 335, 345, 347,358; 
plan of a hospital ward for, 360, 366, 374, 378. 

Insane poor, 263 ; in Pennsylvania, 270 ; cruel treatment of, in New York, 273 ; 
shocking cases in Pennsylvania poor-houses, 274, 279, 385, 390, 394; prac- 
tically excluded from State hospitals, 281 ; remarks, 385, 393, 396; insuffi- 
cient provision for, in Pennsylvania, 243, 433-443. 

Insane curable, 259, 268,403, 415. 

Insane incurable, 257, 282, 380, 398. 

Industrial schools in London, 50, 53; in Scotland, 83. 

Intermediate prisons or discharging-houses, 187, 190. 

Innocent persons charged with crime, 204. 

Imprisonment for life, 198. 

Intemperance a cause of crime, 183. 

International Prison Reform Congress, 47, 162, 224, 233, 239. 

Juvenile vagrants and criminals, 85, 87. 

Jarvis, Dr. Edward — Remarks on effects of education, 40. 

Legislation in Pennsylvania for the insane, 330, 334; in other States, 335, 345. 
Labor of convicts — Salutary effects, 95, 124, 147, 209; profits of, 139; effects 

on free labor, 141 ; proper application of proceeds, 139, 235. 
Livingston, Edward, on prison discipline, 131, 134, 167. 

" Mark system" of rewarding prisoners, 164, 172, 184, 230. 

Municipal prisons, 200. 

Moral effects of education, 24, 123. 

Massachusetts — Compulsory education in, 3, 5, 14; insane in, 328, 431. 

Memorial — Of Board of Public Charities to Constitutional Convention on State 
aid to charities, 56; to Pennsylvania Legislature in behalf of insane crimi- 
nals, 318; of physicians and citizens in behalf of insane, 371, 374. 

Medical superintendents of insane hospitals on criminal insane — correspond- 
ence, 347, 353; resolutions, 353, 358; statements and review, 354, 360; 
compensation of, 438. 



448 INDEX. 

\ 

Neglected, destitute, and vicious children, I, 17, 54, 58, 76, 88. 
New York provides for total insane population, 258, 260. 

Officials — Incompetent prison, 5.24236 

Pennsylvania — Illiterates in, 3, 5, 57 ; insane in, 407 ; legislation for insane re- 
trogressive, 42, 43, 77; criminal lunatics, 303, 310, 345; prison reform in, 
118; poor insane, 281, 378, 385, 433-443; total amount of State aid to 
local charities from 1752 to 1872 (130 years), 67. 

Paying patients in State hospitals exclude the poor insane, 283, 285, 368, 382, 
391 ; private asylums for the wealthy, 265. 

Paupers, 39, 50, 103. 

Prevention of crime, 77, 78, 105. 

Pardoning power, the, 196. 

Public schools in Pennsylvania, 3, 21, 45. 

Penitentiaries — Convict labor, 143 ; insane in, 295, 323. 

Prison discipline and economy, 89, 242; solitary confinement, 94; labor, 95; 
recent progress in Europe, 222 ; general summary and suggestions, 214, 222. 

Prison-keepers and officials, 93, 138; selection and training of, 173, 178, 185, 
202, 227, 236; sheriffs incompetent as, 175. 

Philadelphia Hospital, insane department — Enlargement of, 435. 

Read and write — Number unable to, 28, 57, 79. 

Refuges and other provisions for discharged prisoners, 191, 196. 

Reformatory use of imprisonment, 92, 119, 124, 220, 238; reform schools, 74, 76, 

88. 
Religious instruction in prisons, 97, 157. 

State aid to public charities, 49, 56, 75. 

Solitary confinement, 94, 127, 129, 166, 170, 209. 

Sumptuary laws, 117. 

Short terms of imprisonment, 183. 

Station-houses, 200. 

Truancy — Suppression of, in Boston, 13. 

Turner, Rev. Sydney, on reformatory and industrial schools, 74. 

Untried prisoners — Large number of discharged, 204, 206. 
Undetermined sentences, 153. 

Value of education to the State, 29, 40. 
Vagrants, 210; children, 44, 52. 
Vindictive punishments, 109; Draconian laws, no. 
Voluntary labor of convicts, 134. 

Willard Asylum for Insane, New York, 260, 269, 423, 439. 
Wines, Dr. E. C, on reformatory efforts, 50, 96, 238. 
Witnesses — Provision for persons detained as, 203, 210. 
Women as prison visitors, 237. 



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